I am a beginner!
I started on my first scarf and have about 15 rows done. I noticed that it seems to be getting wider and wider. When I started I cast on 50 Stiches. Now when I count them there are almost 70. Am I doing something wrong?? Please help me if you know what I might be doing.
Thanks!
Most likely you’re making inadvertent yarn-overs. If you knit a stitch with the yarn in front, or purl a stitch with the yarn in back, you’ll get an extra stitch.
Make sure that if you knit, the yarn is in the back, and when you purl you bring it between the needles to the front.
If you’re using a funky-furry yarn, the strands can be deceiving, as well, and you knit into the fur that wraps around the needle as well as the thread that holds it.
Most likely, it’s one of the two above things, considering how many stitches you’ve increased in such a short time.
Hang in there! It gets easier!
You might also check out the stickied thread at the top of this forum [B]‘FAQ…Mysterious extra stitches? Look Here!’[/B]
cam
i did exactly the same when i first started, im still not entirely sure what it was, but i think it was a combination of the problems ingrid mentioned!
there are two things you can do now:
unravel and start again, but takeit slowely and pay extra attention to who you are moving the thread and how many stitches you are on.
carry on and turn this scarf into a practive piece, now is an ideal time to start learning how to do decreases such as k2tog (knitting two stitches together as if they where one, the video on here shows you how well), then maybe you can practice doing some intentional increases etc etc. dont worry about what the finished product looks like, just use it as a way of playing and learning.
Yay for picking up the needles and giving it a go. Its adictive and there is so much to learn. I started just less than a year ago and havnt stopped!
One of my students had this problem. Turned out that when she started a new row, her yarn turned the final stitch of the last row over top of her needle - making 1 stitch look like two.
So check that first stitch of every new row. It could be you’re making that all-too-easy mistake of pulling your final stitch over the needle. You should only have 1 yarn for the first stitch, just like all the others. Not 2 yarns.
Hope this helps,
Dot
I think just about everyone does this when starting out. I know I did.
Pay close attention to what you’re doing, go slow, and make sure you’re moving the yarn correctly from front to back and back to front when switching between yarns and purls and visa versa.