I don't know how to knit, but knitting came up in my NaNoWriMo novel and I wrote what I can tell from pictures. But I'm hoping a knitter can give it a read and tell me if it sounds right?
Mildred gave her an approving nod, as if praising Bitty’s ownership of her preference. It gave Bitty a surprising feeling of pleasure; that simple nod. She smiled. Her eyes followed the woman’s hands as she picked up a ball of purple yarn and began knotting it and looping it over one of the needles, then handed it to Bitty.
“There. Now, hold it like this, your forefingers over the top to hold the yarn and your other fingers back here to keep the string out of the way. Push the right tip under the loop there and make an ‘X’...good...now wrap the loose string around that end. No, the other one. There, that’s it. Okay, now the tricky part. Use that ‘X’ to slide the loop over the end and then tug the string gently.”