Need help making color changes

[forego1]

I'm new to knitting and have had a hard time learning. By now I'm okay at cast on, knit, purl, and bind off. My problem is that I want to make a scarf with color changes. I just plain suck at it. I've read other answers here about color changing that make it sound so easy. "Oh, you just drop the old yarn, start knitting with the new yarn, and that's all!" And then the person who asked replies that she now can do the changes with no trouble. So why can't I when I try? My color changes look horrid. My edges are really lumpy and many of my stitches around them look too loose. If I try to pull them tight, then they're too tight and cramped.

Picture: http://i55.tinypic.com/mru6vt.jpg

I have not found any useful videos on this site. The ones that deal with color changing all seem to be in continental style, and I knit in English.

I've experimented with a few methods of changing colors and can't master any of them, which is extremely discouraging. If you look at the picture where I go from red to yellow, I was told to drape the new yarn behind my work, then make my first stitch with both old and new yarn before dropping the old yarn. I tried to do that, and ended up getting a weird red twist of yarn on the right side of my work. Plus my edges still suck there.

There is only one knitting store in town. I don't have a car so I can't go out of town. I hate asking for help at the local place because they always put a lot of pressure on me to buy things while I'm there and I can't afford their high prices. So I'm kind of stuck trying to learn on my own, and I'm not very good at it.

[suzeeq]

It doesn't matter how the knitter in the videos knits, the technique is the same no matter how you hold your yarn. I think you're doing too many rows in one color to just carry the yarn up the side, anything more than 4 rows is usually too much. Some of the colors are 6 and 8 rows so you'd need to cut your yarn at the end of those stripes and weave in the ends. For the 4 row stripes, just loosely twist the yarns around each other, once or twice will do it.

[CamilleV]

I am working on a sweater with a color change after every 8 rows. I am making one of the side seam stitches with both colors so there is no dangling thread and no knots to deal with. The unused color travels up the side seam until it is needed for the next color change. The tension does not vary either as it would if I was cutting the yarn and knotting each time I change colors. This technique works best when the seam is hidden, not like in a scarf.

[forego1]

It doesn't matter how the knitter in the videos knits, the technique is the same no matter how you hold your yarn. I think you're doing too many rows in one color to just carry the yarn up the side, anything more than 4 rows is usually too much. Some of the colors are 6 and 8 rows so you'd need to cut your yarn at the end of those stripes and weave in the ends. For the 4 row stripes, just loosely twist the yarns around each other, once or twice will do it.

I haven't been carrying the yarn up the side. I've been doing what you say, just cutting the yarn at the ends of the stripes with the intention of weaving in the ends. And the results have been what you can see in the picture I linked: super ugly and uneven. I tried again today for an hour and my color changes are still awful. Honestly, I'm on the verge of never knitting again.

ETA: The picture I linked is not the actual scarf I'm knitting. It's an experiment where I'm just practicing color changes to try to get them right before I attempt the scarf again. The scarf itself has eight different colors that are anywhere from 8-40 rows wide depending on the section.

[Jan in CA]

Maybe you need some help weaving in the ends. This gives info about it and at the end it's specific to garter stitch. This is important for all your projects.
http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall04/FEATfall04TT.html

Also you could crochet up the edges with a single crochet. I didn't like the edges on my baby bibs so I did this and it makes a nice edge. In your case with the stripes you'd have to use a contrasting color to do it, but that would be pretty. I don't want to hijack your thread so I'll just use a link.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3032/...e9ed5a0325.jpg

Another thing I do is slip the first stitch as if to purl with yarn in front(on garter) and knit the last stitch. It creates a chain effect.

Another thought is that since you are a new knitter you need to just practice knitting. It takes lots of practice to get your tension even and learn all the tricks.

[IndyPurl]

This video helped me a lot with changing colors: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kscakqPUpvc

Hopefully that helps you too.

Another thing I do is slip the first stitch as if to purl with yarn in front(on garter) and knit the last stitch. It creates a chain effect.

Agreed, it does make a beautiful edge