New to knitting and I am so lost..I can not explain it

[anaaus]

For some reason I keep making the same mistakes with two of my projects I am working on. If anyone can help, I would greatly appreciate it. The sad thing is, I do not even know how to describe my problem. I think the picture will explain it better than I can. The only way I can describe this fiasco is by saying that the yarn in the middle keeps getting longer after I knit a stitch??? Thanks in advance!

[suzeeq]

You're doing the first row? The problem is with your cast on. The backward loop does this, so it's not a good one to use for starting a project. Look on the cast ons page and try the knit or cable one, even long tail. Any one of those will prevent loose strands of yarn between the sts or needles.