How does enchanting work?
First you need a soul.
Collect souls by filling soul gems.
Kill things to collect their souls if you have a Soul Trap spell on them at the time of their death.
If you have a soul gem in your inventory, the soul will fill the gem and you have a full soul gem.
Go to an enchanting station(If you're an Apprentice or higher in the Mages' Guild these become available to you in the Arcane University) and select the item you wish to enchant.
Then select the effect.
At a small cost, the item will be enchanted.
There are different types of soul gems for different strengths of souls.
From least to most potent:
-Petty
-Lesser
-Common
-Greater
-Grand
A low-strength soul can fit in a larger-strength soul gem(like putting a marble in a milk jug) but high-strength souls cannot fit into lower-strength soul gems(like putting a basketball into a peanut butter jar)
Typically, the stronger the enemy, the greater his soul will be. Do not expect a Grand soul from a mud crab, for instance.
The higher-strength the soul you use, the more potent the enchantment will be.
Or at least, that's how Oblivion's enchantment system works. Skyrim I can't see being much different.
Hope this helped.
Or you can use Sigil Stones which have pre-set enchantments that you can use to enchant items without visiting an enchantment station. Visit
this page for information on Sigil Stones.