How to Knit Garter in the Round
The garter stitch, which creates a ridged pattern on both sides of the fabric, is the simplest stitch you can create on straight needles. Just knit back and forth, using only knit stitches. Things change once you start working in the round: Knitting every row creates a stockinette pattern, which is flat on one side and ridged on the other. You can still create garter stitch fabric in the round, but you need to modify your stitch pattern slightly, doing what would create a stockinette stitch if you were working on straight needles.
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Instructions
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Cast on as many stitches as the pattern calls for. If you're using a circular needle, you should be able to spread the stitches evenly across from needle tip to needle tip, along the the cable that joins the sides of the needle. If the stitches don't span this distance, you must either use a circular needle with a shorter cable, or use double-pointed needles, dividing the cast-on stitches evenly between the needles and reserving one bare needle for working future stitches.
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Arrange your circular needle, or double-pointed needles, so that the cast-on edge runs around the inside of the needle or needles. This ensures that you won't accidentally twist the edge of your work when you join it. The working end of the yarn, or the last stitch you cast on, should be to your right; the first stitch you cast on should be to your left.
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Place a circular marker on the right-hand needle, to mark where each new round begins. If you prefer to use locking markers, go on to the next step.
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Poke your right-hand needle into the stitch nearest the tip of the left-hand needle and knit as usual. This is called joining the round. Pull the stitch extra-snug to help eliminate any gap. If you prefer to use locking stitch markers, insert the marker in the stitch you just created to mark the first stitch in each new round.
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Knit all the way around until you get back to the stitch marker. Slip the stitch marker, if you're using circular markers, or remove the locking stitch marker and replace it into the first stitch of the next row.
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Purl the next row, until you reach the stitch marker again. Continue knitting and purling alternating rows, moving the stitch marker up with you as you go, to create garter stitch fabric.
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Tips & Warnings
You can easily use this technique to create a literal garter; just do a gauge swatch to measure how many stitches fit in an inch of garter-stitch knitting (measure across the row). Then multiply this stitches-by-inch measurement by the desired circumference of the garter, in inches, to calculate how many stitches you must cast on. So if your swatch had four stitches per inch, and you want the garter to measure 12 inches around unstretched, cast on 48 stitches. Alternate knit and purl rows until the garter is the desired height, then bind off loosely.
