Beginner...Strange ??

chance · 11-14-2007, 03:36 AM

Hi there! I just bought my first set of needles & yarn the other day & learned from the videos how to begin. I started a double cast-on with 20 stitches & then having been continuing with a knit stitch simply to practice. As I have gone down, I have gained 6 stitches. I started with 20 - how do I now have 26? Can anyone answer this? I am running out of space on my needles! haha

Thanks for any help!

MAmaDawn · 11-14-2007, 01:44 PM

You have done an increase somewhere.

Most likely a yo, to you have any holes?

but it can also be from forgetting to take the stitch off the left hand needle and knitting into it twice. Usually with this one it's tight to knit the second time.

You can decrease if you want it back to 20, just do 6 decreases...

My prefered decrease is k2tog... here's Amy's videos for all of them...http://www.knittinghelp.com/videos/decreases

HTH

brittyknits · 11-14-2007, 02:07 PM

This is an incredibly common occurance for a beginning knitter! The more you knit, the less you'll do it. And hey-- you only picked up 6 stitches-- at least you didn't do it in every stitch and end up with 40

. There are a number of possibilities of where you picked them up-- it could have been, as Mamadawn said, not taking the old stitch off and re-knitting it, or you could have picked up the yarn in-between the stitches. What kind of yarn are you using? I'm asking because some yarns have better "stitch definition" and it's easier to see what you're doing.

Lisa R. · 11-14-2007, 03:29 PM

Another thing that is common is when you turn your work to knit the next row, if your working yarn is sort of going over the top of the needle, you may knit into the wrong part of the first stitch...really knitting into both sides of the stitch below. It's hard to describe without showing you hands-on, but basically, when you turn the work, make sure the working yarn is in front of the needle, and that all the stitches are lined up the same way and not sort of "rolling" over the top of the left needle when you begin.

cam90066 · 11-14-2007, 05:00 PM

Check out the stickied post 'FAQ...Mysterious extra stitches? Look Here!' at the top of this forum.

cam

Beating_Earth · 11-14-2007, 10:00 PM

I have this problem as well only I started with 20 and ended up with 28, LOL. There were only 3 holes in the swatch so I think i picked them all up in various ways. LOL. Just thought Id let you know you arent alone

lelvsdgs · 11-14-2007, 11:35 PM

Originally Posted by Beating_Earth

I have this problem as well only I started with 20 and ended up with 28, LOL. There were only 3 holes in the swatch so I think i picked them all up in various ways. LOL. Just thought Id let you know you arent alone

Yes, we've all been there and practice really does make this go away. Just don't give up!