why does my work keep increasing???

[GodsLilKitten]

I'm trying to knitt baby booties, but my first bootie is unbelievablly humongous. I don't know what happened to it! I keep trying to fold it around to see what it will look like at the end but it's enormous. There's no way it's supposed to fit a newborn's foot. I don't know what to do with it. Maybe a stuffed animal or a blanket or a hat or a combo stuffed animal-blanket (not sure what those are called) since it is such an irregular shape.

But why does my work keep increasing??? I'm supposed to only hav 16 stitches but I have over 30. The wool I'm using is really fluffy and I wonder if I keep doing two stitches where it's supposed to be one piece of yarn but it's so hard to tell what I'm looking at. Sigh.. :knitting:

[suzeeq]

If you're just knitting every row and have the yarn over the top of the needle to the back it pulls up the first stitch and each leg looks like 2 sts. Or if you have the yarn in front of the R needle and put it over the needle to the back, that makes a stitch (called a yarn over/yo,) which increases the sts. Hold the yarn a little out to the side so you can see the one leg of the first st and just knit 1 st there instead of 2. If you have knits and purls on the same row, you should be taking the yarn between the needles instead of over it to move it front or back.

[ChatyKathy]

I wouldnt be using really fluffy yarn to make booties. I would get some baby yarn that is smaller and you can see it better. Also it does sound like you are doing the yarn over and adding stitches. I would try it with something easier to knit with. Just a thought.

[Jan in CA]

Fluffy yarn can be hard to work with because it's hard to see your stitches and see whether you've accidentally created a YO (yarn over). Make sure that your working yarn is in the right place...to the back for knit stitches and to the front for purls.