I link to all the Connecticut knitting groups I know about on the front page of the S'nB New Haven Yahoo Group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SnB_NewHaven. The members of our group love teaching "newbies" -- I bet the other groups are the same.
And have you seen the free knitting videos at
http://www.knittinghelp.com? The advantage of videos is that you can them watch over & over until you "get it."