Hi everyone. I’m trying to learn to knit from videos on this site and others. I’m able to successfully cast on and then knit the first row. But the last stitch in the first row ends up being a gigantic loop. Pulling it tight doesn’t help. It’s such a shapeless loop that I don’t even know where to put the needle in to begin the second row of knitting. I’ve noticed that many other new knitters have the same problem as I’m having, but the answers I’ve read in the forum so far don’t really help me. Can anyone give me a better suggestion to fix this or does anyone know of a video that slowly and clearly shows how to knit the last stitch? Thanks!
Another new-to-knitting question
Hi jennajls, Welcome to KH.
Others will be along shortly to give further answers but in the meantime I can tell you what what I learned. The last stitch which was the first stitch you cast on looks abnormally large at first. As you keep knitting the rows it seems to magically get smaller. Also a lot of it will depend on how loose you cast your stitches on to begin with.
The videos on this site are great. This is how I learned to knit. Several people have tried to teach me but I never could grasp the concept. I watched the Conti video and the long tail cast on and now I can knit the basic stitches. Now to learn to increase and decrease in an actual pattern.
Andi
http://www.knittinghelp.com/videos/cast-on
You might want to look at one of these videos
Andi is correct. Just keep knitting and it will get better. Another thing is that as you knit more your tension gets better so keep knitting and don’t worry about that loop. 
The last st of a row is always looser. As long as I’ve been knitting, this has happened. My grandmother knit her entire life, and when I asked her, she said that it was normal. “The more you knit, the better it will get, but it will always be there. Look, after an inch or so of knitting, it’s barely noticeable.” That was what she told me.
As for where to put the needle, well, it’s still a loop. If your last st was a knit st, when you turn, just make sure your purl bump is out of the way. As long as you’re in the loop, you’ll be fine. You can snug it up as you’re going in the other direction, and that will help as well.
the last stitch on first row? its a given that it is larger.
the overall solution?
Make the first stitch in each row tighter.
(sound wrong, right?)
the first stitch in row 1, is the last stitch in row 2!
so if you start to develop the habit of making the first stitch or two tighter, when you turn the work and come back to the tight stitch (when its the last stitch in next row) it won’t be so big.
WHY does it get big?
well think of the stadium thing, THE WAVE–when you knit (work) a row, you stretch and move each stitch and this creates a wave like movement of the yarn… you move a bit of ease from stitch to stitch… and when you get to the end stitch… all the ease has no place to go! so the last stitch has to take up all the accumulated ease.
if that stitch is tight (has no ease of its own!) it will take up the ease with growing too big
when working in the round, the same thing happens, (the ease makes “ladders” --open area’s between the gaps of the needles (the ease leaves the last stitch and works it way into the gap between the needles.)
again, the solution is to snug up first stitch (on the next neeedle) then this stitch can take up the ease. (and no more ladders!)
if you remind your self to snug up stitch one and two, (but not the whole row!) you’ll solve the over sized stitch at the end of the row, in 2 rows!
im still a new knitter but what i have done to fight it is to knit (or purl) if like normal then after turning your work and starting the next row, in which that stitch is now first, just slip it so it doesn’t get worked then it will be pulled a cross two rows and tightened up a bit.
It’s normal for the last stitch to be looser. When you turn the work make a point of knitting that now first stitch a bit more snugly than the others and you’ll be surprised at how well it behaves for you.