Circular knitting problem

[Knit4Pie]

Ok, I just noticed my rows don't match up. I had to do 4 rows of garter st and the purl rows don't match up. Is there something I missed when knitting in the round, that my rows seem to be offset? I have been extremely careful about not mixing up my rows, double-checking when I pick up my knitting after setting it down. Should I have done something special at the beginning? I don't remember this ever happening before, but I think the other times I knit in the round, I was just about always just knitting - stockinette st.

I can't get a good picture that isn't blurry...but I'll try again later.

[kaallen]

I'm not sure what you mean when you say the purl rows don't match up. i know that you must knit a round, purl a round to get the garter stitch. Did you place a marker at the end of the 1st round to keep track of the beginning and ending of each round?

[wildirish]

I am not sure either.

Are you doing ribbing?

Tammy

[Ingrid]

When you knit in the round, you're not really knitting in a circle, but rather a spiral. The edges where you go from one round to the next don't match up perfectly.

[Knit4Pie]

I'm not sure what you mean when you say the purl rows don't match up. i know that you must knit a round, purl a round to get the garter stitch. Did you place a marker at the end of the 1st round to keep track of the beginning and ending of each round?

Well, the end of my purl row seems to be even with the start of my knit row, etc. (I did mark the start of the round) However, as Ingrid explains it, that seems to be okay and I'll stop worrying. I just thought maybe I was supposed to do something at the start of the project to stop this from happening. I worry too much sometimes LOL

[Spokaloo]

Ingrid is right. You're not really knitting in a circle, but rather a spiral. That means each new row just kind of works up and over the beginning of the previous one.

The only way to make rows truly match up in circular knitting is to wrap the last stitch of each round. This kind of "ties" it to the beginning stitch of that same round and keeps them even. I couldn't find anything in the videos on this site on how to wrap a stitch and I don't really have time right now to search myself, but I'm betting someone out there has a link or can find one that will show you how to do it.

Of course, that's not much help in the middle of a project, is it?

[suzeeq]

Another way to minimize the jog when you go from knit all to purl all to knit all, is to slip the st either before or after the marke, then work it the next round in the st you've just been doing. It helps somewhat.