Pair consecutive elements in a list while iterating
<p>I have a list that will always contain an even number of elements
and I want to iterate over this list to create a new list containing
lists of each 2 consecutive numbers in the list.</p>

<p>For example: </p>

<pre><code>first_list = [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]
second_list = [[1,2], [3,4], [5,6], [7,8]]
</code></pre>

<p>When I iterate over the list I cannot figure out how to select consecutive pairs. I've tried a million variations, and this is the closest that I've come. </p>

<pre><code>first_list = [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]    
second_list = []

pairs = 1

for item in range(len(first_list) - pairs): 
    second_list.append([firs_list[item],first_list[item + pairs]])
print second list

[[1, 5], [5, 7], [7, 6], [6, 2], [2, 3], [3, 4], [4, 8]]
</code></pre>

<p>Is there some way that I have have the for loop iterate over every other item?</p>