What on earth have I done?

[kate_robyn]

Hi all,

Newbie here. I looked through some of the old threads but couldn't find an answer to my question.

I'm VERY new at knitting (I learnt how to do it yesterday via the web) and I have no idea what I've done.

I've knitted several rows in my scarf, but now there is a spot where two stitches are crossed over each other to make an X.

I've drawn a (pretty bad) diagram to illustrate the problem.

Can someone please help with info - how did I do this and how do I fix it?

Thanks,


Kate

[Ingrid]

You can kind of slip your stitches from one needle to the other to get to where these have crossed and try to uncross them. Just put your needle in as if to purl but don't wrap the yarn.

More likely, though, since you have such vast experience you kind of knitted into the stitch below, or didn't slide your stitch off correctly.

I would slip like I said above, and see if you can try to get it to look like the others. Count your stitches, too. If you have the right number, counting this X as one, you probably just didn't slip it off the needle correctly. Then slip the stitches back and you should be set to go.

[Silver]

It looks like when you inserted your needle into the next stitch to be knitted, instead of pulling only the new stitch through, you accidentally grabbed the old stitch too, so they're sorta half knitted together. Just go back and slip the old stitch off the new one and you're good to go.

[Hildegard_von_Knittin]

Hi kate_robyn!!!
Just in case you're not sure, when you "slip" a stitch, that means you put your right needle into the first stitch on the left needle, and then instead of making a new stitch, you just slide the stitch from the .left needle to the right needle.

If you already knew, then never mind! :-)

And don't get discouraged! I still have the very first thing I made, and it's hideous! I don't even know what it is... a sort of rectaangle thing with wavy edges. Knitting is all about practice: you can always rip it out and try again. Good luck!

[Hildegard_von_Knittin]

AND, one more thing (sorry I'm nutty) it might be easier to knit your way across to the mistake than to "slip" your way across. If you knit to the X point, you can fix the mistake (or skip it if you can't) and then keep going to finish the row. If you slip across, you'll have to slip alllllll the way back once you fix the X: if you don't, you'll end up with uneven rows (the technical term is thatyou'd be adding a short roiw, but don't worry about it) . But that's just my opinion; do whatever is easiest for you. Slipping across and back would give you some practice on doing that! :thinking:

[kate_robyn]

Thanks all for the tips.

My scarf is back on track with normal looking stitches and no holes!

--Kate