How do I move my yarn to the front or back for the first stitch of a row?

Question

My edges tend to look sorta weird and I suspect it's because I'm not moving my work to the front for purls and back for knits, on the first stitch.

When I already have one stitch on my needle it's easy to move the yarn to the front of back, but before that (for the first stitch)... there's no yarn on my right-hand needle, so I can't move the yarn to the front or back.

However, I can tell on my left hand needle, that depending on if my last stitch was a purl or knit, the yarn is pointing back or front.

If someone has a step by step with pictures link, please provide it. Or a video, although I prefer pictures.

Answer 1

Your assumption is kind of wrong. There are different techniques to starting and finishing a row that result in different edges. Some of them look uneven but are best to be sewn together, others are neater and more decorative. My go-to technique is to always purl the last stitch, no matter what the pattern says and to always pick up the first stitch without knitting it.

That's also the reason why the first and last stitch are never part of the pattern. For a pattern repeat of 4 stitches you have to cast on 6 - 4 for the pattern and 2 for the edge.

Answer 2

What I do is I put the needle in through the first stitch and I can switch the yarn to the front or back by going around the entire needle around the bottom and then I have it as I want. But if your edges look wonky then maybe it's a technique issue with your selvage and here's a link to a few tips to improve selvage.

Disclaimer I have no affiliation whatsoever with the website link(s) posted.