Circular needles

#1

I am a new knitter(about a year, but have only done scarves), but i now want to make a baby crib afghan with the block pattern…u know knit edge with blocks of knit 5, purl 5. I have started about 5 times now, because it seems my knitting somehow gets reversed when I get to the other side of the circular needles so it seems my blocks are not right…like it seems i have a purl in the middle of my knit row…etc…and i know i have done the right stitch for that block because i’m almost obsessive about counting…What am I doing wrong.??Please help…thanks

#2

:thinking: I’m not exactly sure what’s happening, but perhaps you should try placing markers after the borders and every time you switch from purl to knit? Then you’ll know exactly when to change and you won’t have to count.

And remember when you are knitting on the opposite side (the ws), you reverse the order of the knits and purls. For example:

Row 1: K5, P5, K5
Row 2 (ws): P5, K5, P5

and so forth. And, you’re using circular needles but knitting flat, right? You don’t want to join them and make a big tube.

#3

So, am I understanding that I should be reversing this with every row instead of every 5 rows as the pattern says…it even seems when i am knitting all rows that all of it doesn’t look like knit…so should i be alternating there also to make it appear as knit…I think i’m really confused…basically because every other time is the wrong side since I am using circular needles…??

#4

Is this a free pattern online that you can share? It’s kind of hard to picture it.

I assume that this should be knit like you are using straight needles–flat, not joined into a tube. They are probably asking you to use a circular needle because a blanket is big and all the stitches won’t fit on a straight needle. Is this part of the problem, maybe?

#5

I think Mer’s first post hit it on the head.

If you are working on the front and back, rather than around and around in a tube, you need to knit the knits and purl the purls as they face you to get stockinette. That’s basically what block patterns are–alternating blocks of stockinette stitch and reverse stockinette stitch.

So if on one side you purled a section, you need to knit that section on the other side.

The back of a knit is a purl and the back of a purl is a knit, so if you want all the knits to be on one side and all the purls to be on the other, you need to alternate between knit and purl, if that’s not too confusing.

#6

I guess that is what my problem has been…i haven’t done what is facing me, I was doing what the pattern said I should do…but would issue not happen even on regular needles? Like I said I am still learning…so whatever little hints anyone has…I love…thanks again

#7

It has nothing to do with the circs. The best thing you can do with your knitting is to look at what’s happening as you follow a pattern. See what your stitches look like so you can recognize what’s what. That and keep on knitting. The more you do, the better and more sure of yourself you get.

#8

Ingrid,
Thanks for that simple suggestion…I know it is obivous, an din actuality i considered doing the stitch that was facing me…but I thought someone for sure would have told me that. I suppose for experienced knitters it is common sense, but it wasn’t for me…now I know, and I appreciate your answer…thanks again…it’s working well and looking like it should…