All of these links come from KnittingHelp.com;
I do recomend them to anyone with the burning desire to lift needles
and start knitting today. More advice? Start with some cheap yarn you
don't give a hoot about to get decent at it. If you want to get a lot
of practice in, 
stitchmysquare
has a monthly trade in which you can participate on a month to month
basis. Each month you're given a choice to trade or not, and how many
squares you'd like to trade. 
akoya is the moderator of stitchmysquare
, and the first person to point me in the direction of Knitting Help.
Below I've included some direct links on Knitting Help's site that
should get you through the basics. Go to the top of any main page (not
a page that plays a video) and there are tabs that mention other things
it can help you with. Can't find the Winning Lotto Ticket tab, but I
haven't given up yet!
Continental cast on video. I swear, this is the easiest method I've tried, and the smoothest cast on.
Knit stitch video, English method.
Purl stitch video, English method. Looked at the German method and recommend the English for simplicity of how to do it.
Basic knit bind off. There are other ways here.
Post inspired by
ilea's post on knitting in craftgrrl.
stitchmysquare
has a monthly trade in which you can participate on a month to month
basis. Each month you're given a choice to trade or not, and how many
squares you'd like to trade. akoya is the moderator of stitchmysquare
, and the first person to point me in the direction of Knitting Help.
Below I've included some direct links on Knitting Help's site that
should get you through the basics. Go to the top of any main page (not
a page that plays a video) and there are tabs that mention other things
it can help you with. Can't find the Winning Lotto Ticket tab, but I
haven't given up yet!Continental cast on video. I swear, this is the easiest method I've tried, and the smoothest cast on.
Knit stitch video, English method.
Purl stitch video, English method. Looked at the German method and recommend the English for simplicity of how to do it.
Basic knit bind off. There are other ways here.
Post inspired by
craftgrrl.
One question though, what are the differences between the different stitches and when should they be used? I'm making a scarf, should I just straight knit it the whole way or should I mix it up and use other stitches that are basic enough for a beginner?
I'm told the edges won't curl either. For one of my next projects, I plan on using the "waffle" pattern just around the edges, to see if that alone will stop the curling.
Have to be honest with you; I'm not a master knitter by any means. Adventurous with the types of yarns I'll use... sure. Willing to "just try something" yeah. Can't give you answers I don't have, but I hope I've helped you a bit.
Oh... and if you're in the middle of a project you probably don't want to change the stitching you're using for someting else unless you plan to balance it out somehow to make it look like you planned it that way from the start.
Best of luck to you!