The first step in your knitting endeavour is to cast on stitches for (your) knitting project. And yes - it is basically your first row but the cast on row is not counted for purposes of your pattern. The first post in the Knitting for Beginners series cov

Knitting Lessons: Cast on Techniques: All knitting starts with casting on. This creates loops on the needle which will become the first row of stitches. Here I present four cast on techniques which are the most commonly used.These techniques include: Sing

This knit cast-on is not just useful for beginners; it is also a great choice for several types of knitting projects. You can use it for casting on a lot of stitches without the risk of too short of a long tail .