I did a long tail cast on. Now I am trying to start my first knitted row and I having trouble. I am not sure where the tail and where the working yarn are supposed to end up and where to start the first stitch. I watched the video on knit stitch but it did not show it off of the cast on so it did not help much. I have a Stitch n B*tch book which also does not show a v ery clear picture of where each strand goes. I keep trying to knit onto the row but somehow it gets jumbled. Can anyone explain it to me in very laymans terms? TIA!
Long tail cast on leaves you with the working yarn and the tail in the same spot. You can ignore the tail for the moment, you’ll weave it in later. Put the needle with the stitches in your left hand, and the empty needle in the right hand. The first stitch can be a little fiddly, but stick with it, it will work out. Wind the working yarn around whichever hand you hold the yarn with, and insert the right needle into the first stitch just like you always do (left to right, into the front part of the stitch) and knit it. Pull it a little snug and move to the next stitch. It will seem a little loose and wonky at first, but once you get going it evens out.
The first stitch on every row tends to be a little loose, so some people like to just slip that stitch instead of knitting it, and then knit the rest of the stitches. That spreads the loop over 2 rows instead of one. When you finish the row and turn it around to work back the other way, that slipped stitch will become the last stitch in the row, and will get knitted then. To slip a stitch, you insert your right needle from right to left and move it over to the right needle without working it. This is also called ‘slip as if to purl’ because you insert your needle as though you would purl the stitch, but then you don’t purl it, just move it over.
Hope that helps! 
If not, ask more questions and we’ll answer them.
I put my first loop on my needle with the working yarn (attached to the skein) farthest from my body…
…so that after the cast on stitches are done, and the work is turned around for Row 1…the working yarn is CLOSEST to my body.
Then, knit that first stitch, then the next…then tighten up that first one a bit.
Here’s a good video:
There’s also a video on the Tips page, Demo of a Small Project, that shows how to knit the first row after the CO.
thanks! i will be attempting this again. the videos help alot!