It occurs to me that the average person wanting to learn how to knit or crochet probably has no idea where to begin.
In my case, my poor, long-suffering mother taught me in my teens, but back then I wasn’t as mad for the craft as I am now and soon abandoned it. My mother thought crochet was somehow inferior to knitting, so I had to get a family friend to teach me on the sly. As far as crocheting is concerned, I’ve always been plagued by crocheting much too tightly, so any garment I crafted could have easily doubled as a Kevlar vest. I was light-years away from understanding the wisdom of using a gauge swatch to avoid this.
Nowadays, there are many ways one can learn fiber arts.
Online
I have a knitting friend who learned completely through YouTube videos. Honestly, you can just throw “How to Knit” or “How to Crochet” into a search engine and myriad options pop up. You can even add “left-handed” and find tutorials for southpaws. If you’re completely lost, I’ve always found Purl Soho to have great knitting tutorials, and believe it or not, wikiHow has instructions on knitting and crocheting, both written and video.
One caveat about finding online resources: different countries use different terms for the same stitch, especially in crochet. I’ve been following an online UK tutorial for a complicated Sirdar crochet afghan, and I constantly must translate stitches in my head. For instance, their “Double Crochet” is our “Single Crochet,” and their “Treble Crochet” is our “Double Crochet.”
Books
I don’t really recommend beginners learn to knit or crochet through books. I do use certain books as references for some stitches if pictures and print easily depict them. For that purpose, I absolutely love The Crochet Answer Book by Edie Eckman and The Knitting Answer Book by Margaret Radcliffe. If you really want to learn from a book, believe it or not, Knitting for Dummies and Crocheting for Dummies are great resources that show stitches, explain tools of the trade, and include some simple beginner patterns.
Teacher
One of the best ways to learn is still the old-fashioned way—getting someone to teach you in person. If you don’t have a readily accessible friend or relative, I can’t say enough good things about your local yarn store. I know that the local yarn shops in our area offer either one-on-one or small-group basic knitting and crocheting instruction. The nice thing about in-person instruction is that you can ultimately make friends with like-minded people.
Happy crafting!