To purl a stitch is the opposite of knitting a stitch. When you purl it makes the bump on the front of the work while the knit stitch makes the bump on the back. All knitting is made of combinations of these two stitches.
HOW TO MAKE A PURL Stitch
Step 1
Insert the right needle tip into the stitch you want to purl. Insert the point of the needle into the stitch from right to left. Be sure to keep the right needle tip in front of the left needle.
Step 2
Holding the right needle in place with your left thumb, wrap the yarn around the tip of the right needle in a counter clockwise direction. Imagine the clock is laying face up in your lap with the 12 on your knees and the 6 at your stomach. Your yarn should end up back on the right side of the needle.
Step 3
Carefully push the loop of yarn through the stitch on the left needle. You will be pushing the tip of the right needle through the stitch and underneath the needle. When your right needle tip comes out the back it should have one stitch on it.
Step 4
Gently push the stitch you just went through off of the left needle while making sure to keep the stitch you just made in place on the right needle.
CONGRATULATIONS!
You’ve made your first purl stitch. Continue purling all the stitches in the row. When you knit all the even numbered rows and purl all the odd numbered rows it is called stockinet stitch. This is the stitch pattern that gives you that nice flat “fabric” look.
To learn how to make a knit stitch see Tutorial: Knit Stitch
To learn how to bind off see Tutorial: Binding Off
crystal
Ana
Working out Kinks and Fingering Yarn 
Feb 09, 2011 @ 15:23:08
Great tutorial just what I was after. About halfway through I got a little lost but figured it out!
Feb 15, 2011 @ 16:48:40
I’m glad you liked it. Sometimes it takes a couple tries to figure things out.