Am I doing it right??!! HELP!!!!

[efox13]

Hello knitters!! My sister is expecting my first niece or nephew next year and I thought it would be great if I learned how to knit and be able to make a treasure for the baby. My grandma was a very accomplished knitter, but I never got the chance to have her teach me. I found this site and think I understand what to do, but I just finished my first row and I have a huge loop at the end. Is that right? Am I just panicking? Did I do something wrong??!! Please help!!!!!

[Ingrid]

Welcome to knitting! Give yourself a break. You wouldn't expect to play Flight of the Bumblebee after your first week of violin lessons, would you?

The large loop that you can get at the end happens because the stitch is only attached on one side. The trick to getting it to fade away is to knit the first few stitches on the next row rather tightly.

As you knit more, your tension will even out and that will help, too. The more you knit, the better you'll get--just like with the violin.

[MerigoldinWA]

I think some kinds of cast ons are more likely to cause that sort of thing. Which one did you use? If it is the simple backward loop cast on that may cause it. Try a long tail or knit cast on cast on.

[efox13]

Thank you guys!! I actually looked at 4 different videos and realized that I was pulling the yarn really tight after each KS, instead of leaving it loose. I was getting so frustrated because I thought my yarn was crappy because it was getting frayed and I didn't want to have to throw away the yarn! I'm so relieved!!! I just tried a small bit (10 stitches) and I did 5 rows and it looked great!!! YAY!!!!