Hi everyone! I am a new, self-taught, left handed knitter. So far I have only complete scarfs, and only in the garter stitch. I’ve watched every video online that I can find, but I everything I try comes out the same…in the garter stitch! I really want to do a basic knit-stitch but I have no idea what I am doing wrong. Does anyone have any advise or suggestions?
Thanks so much!
Tiffany
So you knit your sts from the right needle to the left? Then insert your left needle from back to front in the front leg of the st on the right needle. Wrap the yarn the same direction you do for a knit st and bring the st to the back on your left needle. Maybe the knitting backwards video would help.
Here is a site that explains knitting and purling backwards. To get regular stockinette stitch and not garter stitch you will need to knit a row and purl a row just as the righties do. This site is written for folks who knit right handed and want to learn left handed knitting so they can use that skill as needed, but it should work for teaching you how to do it too. I found this the clearest easiest to follow instruction when I was wanting to learn.
Self taught lefty here too 
Sounds like you’ve either not learned to knit or not learned to purl if everything comes out garter. I knit from left to right, using my left needle to knit the new row with the rigt needle holding the work. Initially I knit the same way I purled mostly, I put my needle into the work from left to right (the opposite way the right needle was pointing) but unlike a purl I would put my left needle behind the right needle & wrap the yarn back there. Everything looked fine I guess but once I figured out that I should be putting my left needle into each stitch the same direction as the right needle my stitches lined up better from row to row. The best way I can discribe it (to myself anyway) is I used to knit & purl with my needles crossing like swords but now I knit with my needles sliding along side each other & still purl with a sword fight.
I’m a very visual person so the thing that helped me the most is a cheapy little book I picked up at Wal-mart in with the knitting needles called “I taught myself to knit -pocketbook guide” it’s a Boye product & came with a set of needles. It has both a left & right handed section with LOTS of pictures.
HTH’s! :mrgreen:
By the way, this business of knitting one row and then purling one row is called stockingette, or stocking, stitch. It will give you all bumps on one side (the purl side) and all "V"s on the other (the knit side), and that’s what you sound like you’re trying to get.
I’m a lefty, too, but I knit regular continental style. I highly recommend you join Ravelry, and check out the lefty groups on there. There are a lot of lefties knitting from right needle to left, and they have videos and advice. Sometimes things get controversial (like if someone says “just learn to do it the right way!”) but there are years of experience there and I am sure also links to videos.
I don’t think you’re doing anything wrong. Garter stitch IS a basic knit stitch. It’s called garter when you knit every row on both sides. If you want the classic stockinette stitch (looks flat like little v’s) that is purled on one side and knit on the other. If you can purl you can do it. 
I’m a lefty and knit English style or right handed. I am also self taught and just never knew there was more than one way to knit. I’ve tried to learn to knit Continental but the yarn feels wrong in my left hand. and as everyone else has said check out ravelry for the Lefties group.
im a self-taught left and I learned how to purl from Amy’s video’s here. Knitting and purling combinations produce different types of stitches. If you want to do stockinette stitch, you might want to add a border of 2 or 3 stitches on each side so that it doesnt curl as much (stockinette has a tendency to curl).
I’m laughing at this conversation! NOT at Tiffany’s problem, but at myself. I’m also a lefty, and mostly self-taught (a friend taught me how to hold Continental style, which I find MUCH easier). I’m still a beginner as far as following patterns, but I can knit and purl either handed. For a stockinette stitch I knit every row, with alternate hands. Until I read this, it never occurred to me that I was doing something unusual.
So far have only made hats and scarves that don’t need patterns. I’m attempting to follow a pattern for the first time and found in the instructions the line “stop on a Purl row” and I realized I have NO idea which rows are technically “purl” vs. “knit”. They all look the same to me, and are all knit from the same side. I assume it means I will need to actually flip the whole thing over at some point, and work something from the back side. I’m sure I’ll figure it out when the time comes.
But I have to wonder, wouldn’t it just be easier if we were all taught to knit both-handed, and the patterns were written with the assumption that it WASN’T flipped over after every row? It seems to me that the patterns would be MUCH easier to follow that way. Or am I unusually co-ordinated to be able to do this? Being a Lefty does force a person to be more ambidextrous in order to live in a right-handed world, so maybe I’m overestimating everybody else’s dexterity? And with the videos linked above for the backwards knitting, is it any different from frontwards knitting? Isn’t it just the same thing in the other direction?
If it works, don’t knock it 
I taught myself too, and am one of those “mostly” lefties, but at the beginning purling made no sense, so I knitted back and forth and flipped the work when a purl stitch came up. It’s a lot easier when you learn to purl–with either or both hands!