FAQ...Mysterious extra stitches? Look Here!

[adagioinb]

Always remember, stitch markers are your friend.
I'm doing a baby afghan that uses seed stitch. about 100 stitches across. I placed stitch markers in strategic places to help me keep on track whether I'm supposed to be knitting or purling. and it also helps me make sure I've got the right number of stitches.

[hyperactive]

I do use stitch markers for counting my stitches, too. For example when casting on. In pattern setups I also use them to devide pattern repeats (every one or a multiple to them) to keep track more easily.

but in seed stitch I do never use that. It is so visible what stitch comes next. All it takes is a look at the pattern you have already made. I only can get off track when I don't look and think I know what I am doing. Mostly it works, but sometimes I have to knit back a bit.

but, yes, stitch markers are friends!

[bayouknitter]

Makin this one STICKY, for our new-to-knitting friends!

My most frequent reason for making this mistake when I was new was bringing the yarn up and over the needle after the last stitch in the row. Go get your knitting & see how this happens.....bring your working yarn up and over the needle....do you see how that causes the "legs" of the last stitch on the needle to look like TWO stitches? Now, bring the yarn over the front toward you. Now it's one stitch again, right? That's how it SHOULD look.

Thank you, I was driving myself nuts! I could not figure it out and these ladies would not share the secret with me over the phone and could not get out to meet them till next week! Thank you again!

[amygoodwin]

I am so glad that this 'problem' was mentioned in this thread because I am a new knitter and each and every time I would start a new project I would always end up with extra stitches, or less stitches than I had started with. Now, I admit that I get VERY excited when I get the hang of a new technique and I try to go faster than I should. It gets difficult for my hands to go slower than my brain.
I guess now, I will SLOW DOWN so I don't have to keep starting, stopping and unraveling my work. Wish me luck!

[tbeardsl]

I was just going to ask this same question. I am a really new knitter and am attempting to follow a pattern to make a dishcloth. I started with 40 and now have 44! It has really thrown my pattern off. I will keep practicing. I am bound and determined to get this! How do I get back on track with a pattern if extra stitches have been added? Thanks and I love this site!

[salmonmac]

Correcting this kind of mistake depends on the pattern. For some things you may want to undo the rows and correct the extra sts. I think that for a dishcloth, you could knit 2 together 4 times across the row, maybe once at the beginning of the row, two times somewhere towards the middle and once near the end of the row. Then you should be back to 40sts. But how and whether to correct the extra sts is up to you.
Increases and decreases could become an added feature of the pattern!

[tbeardsl]

Thanks for your help! I am just going to keep practicing until I get it right! Again, I appreciate the help.

[Christinechrstms1]

lol I was picking up extra stitches as well! Here I was being careful not to drop any and instead they seemed to just "leap" onto my needle. I did just as others recommended, take it slow and watch what I am picking up. I also count each row after I knit it as I am still new to knitting. After 2 months I am finding that I am making fewer errors and hopefully will feel confident enough to stop counting stitches after every row. It wastes a lot of time but for now it is better than having to go back and unravel rows

[salmonmac]

It's still a good idea to count sts because, as you say, it saves time in the end if you catch mistakes early. Maybe you can count every other row? For pattern sts, it may help to put in stitch markers every pattern repeat or every 10-20sts to make counting easier.