Help! Why is my purl stitch flat? My ribbing won't work.

[Lawlren]

I am trying to make a hat, and it requires ribbing. You can not tell the difference between my knit and purl stitches. The work is totally flat. I started out with English knit and purl with no luck. Then I tried english knit continental purl..It worked at first, but now it's back to flat. Then I tried continental knit and purl, still didn't work. After continental knit and combined purl didn't work, I gave up. Here is a (bad) picture of my work: http://i55.tinypic.com/vr4tx4.jpg
What am I doing wrong? My english knit and purl method used to work fine until recently! It's not the needle size that's doing it. Could my tension be too tight? Please help!

[suzeeq]

Have you checked the video for ribbing under Basic Stitches on the Tips page? You move the yarn to the front and to the back between the needle tips, not over it. Also, your needles may be a little too big or your tension too loose for the pattern to show well, and it usually takes about 5 or 6 rows for it to look like ribbing.

[Lawlren]

I have been moving the yarn from the front to the back between K and P, so it stumps me that it is just not working. I am 99% sure that I am doing the stitches right. The other day when I switched to continental purl my rib was looking great, but I made the hat about 5X too big, so I had to unravel it. It's really frustrating not being able to knit what I want :(

[MerigoldinWA]

Well, it sounds like you have tried just about everything. I'm really stumped. If you have done ribbing before and it worked and you are truly doing k1, p1 and then on the next row lining the knits over the knits and the purls over the purls, I don't know why you wouldn't get ribbing. I can't tell from your picture what is going on, it is pretty blurry. Whichever style of knitting you normally do---English, Continental, or Combination, stay with it and don't try to mix styles, that won't solve things. There is no way you can alternate k1, and p1 and then line the next ones up and it won't make ribbing. If you do K1, p1 on the second row but don't line them up right it will make quite a bumpy stitch on both sides (seed st, if you are consistent about the way you alternate them).

There is a free video on this site that shows ribbing. Here is a link to the page. Scroll down to "Basic Stitch Patterns", it is the 3rd one down. If that doesn't help, review Knit and Purl stitches just to make sure....