Really, the only items you will initially need to worry about are:

- casting on (why is the start so hard to get right?)
- keeping a uniform tension (practice, practice)
- taking back after you've made a mistake (or worse, dropped a stitch) and then fixing it

And that's why I recommend starting with a scarf (which you don't mind discarding) as practice. My first scarf had numerous errors (mysterious increases), but my second was much better.