Extra stitches in my pattern

#1

Please help. I’m going crazy. I’ve unthreaded my knitting like 5 times and had to start over because of a perceived error.

Here is my pattern. With 85 stitches cast on to begin with. The problem that I am having is that when I do this pattern I get to row 4 and I end up with extra stitches left over at the end of the pattern. I’ve not used too many premade patterns before. Typically I have a book that I use and just find the pattern I want and work with that using mulitples of the pattern stitch.

Well I’ve been trying to work in this pattern and I have about 4-5 extra stitches after row 4. I notice that there are parenthesis around the (k2tog tbl, p1, k2tog) but no indication on how many times to do this in the pattern so I’ve been reading it as exact and only doing it once. Am I missing something? Should I be doing this twice?

Lace Pattern (multiple of 17 sts, decreasing to 15 sts on Rows 2-7)
Row 1 (WS): Purl across.
Row 2 (RS): *K1, yo, k1, k2tog tbl, p1, k2tog, k1, p1, k2, p1, k2tog, k1, p1, k1; rep from *.
Row 3: *P4, (k1, p2) twice, k1, p4; rep from *.
Row 4: *(K1, yo) twice, (k2tog tbl, p1, k2tog), p1, (k2tog tbl, p1, k2tog), (yo, k1) twice; rep from *.
Row 5: *P5, (k1, p1) twice, k1, p5; rep from *.
Row 6: *K1, yo, k3, yo, sk2p, p1, k3tog, yo, k3, yo, k1; rep from *.
Row 7: *P7, k1, p7; rep from *.
Row 8: *K1, yo, k5, yo, sk2p, yo, k5, yo, k1; rep from *.
Rep Rows 1-8 for Lace Pattern.

Here is the link to the actual pattern.

http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/70337AD.html?r=1

#2

Oh yeah. And one more thing. I’m thinking of adding stitch markers after each repeat so that I know where the patterns should begin and end, is this a good idea, or with this pattern will then end up crossing the end stitch of one pattern and the begin stitch of another?

#3

Yes, definitely add the stitch markers.

You might be doing the YOs as wrap the st and knit 1, but it doesn’t included the knit 1. Just wrap the yarn around the needle and go on to the [I]next stitch in the pattern,[/I] whether it’s a knit or dec or whatever.

#4

Here is a truth about lacey-type knitting:
What one row may add to the st count, another row will remove.

Eg: Row 4 might add 2 stitches to the count.
But Row 8 might delete them.

Have you worked through to a further row than Row 4?

Another truth: IF you are really adding stitches that are not a part of the design, it will probably be unintentional yarnovers somewhere. Pay more than the usual attenntion to unintentional yarnovers, and as well, missed yarnovers for that matter. Yarnovers are always what trip me up!

Also, it pays to do a HEAD COUNT at the end of each row…before working the wrong side resting row…to make sure the st count is right. I’ve knitted for years and years, and I always perform this little task when knitting anything lacey and complicated with K2T’s and SSK’s and yarnovers.

And YES, always work with stitch markers on patterns that have repeating sequences. And YES, some of the subsequent rows repeats may run over into another section, but just keep adjusting the placement of your stitch markers to ‘run true’ to the current row you are working on.

Been there, done that!

#5

Nope, it looks like the YOs and decs on row 4 balance out. HOWEVER, Row 2, has only one YO per repeat and 3 decreases. So the sts will be off after that. The lace st pattern even says so - “Lace Pattern (multiple of 17 sts, decreasing to 15 sts on Rows 2-7)” Row 8 puts them back in with 4 YOs and a double dec.

#6

I’m pretty sure that I’m doing this properly. Like when it says k1, yo I am only knitting 1, then I’m drawing the yarn over, then I’m knitting the 1st knit 1 of the repeat, then yarning over without knitting and moving on to the next instruction.

Maybe I’m not being clear enough with my explanation. Or maybe I just am not used to extra stitches. At the end of row 4 there are 4 extra stitches that I don’t know what to do with. They aren’t part of the pattern. Is it typical to have extra stitches and I should just restart the pattern, or should the pattern work out completely? I’m just used to having patterns that account for all of the stitches. Like they will have k1,p2rep k last 4. But this one doesn’t say anything about the 4 stitches that are left over.

#7

No it should use up all the sts. Check to make sure you didn’t miss a k2tog or k2togtbl. Or that you you didn’t add extra sts in row 2. You should have 75 sts at the end of that row.

#8

Ok. So I figured out what I was doing. I also figured out a way to actually help with this that is working out extremely well.

So the problem. What I was doing is I had the pattern typed out in very close proximity to each other. So row 1-8 were right on top of one another. Well about halfway through row number 4 I was doing the k2 tbl, p1, k2tog, and what i was doing was switching to the pattern in row 2 because they were so close to each other and so similar in pattern.

The Solution. I took the pattern and printed out all eight lines on one full sheet of paper, spaced so there was about 3/4 of an inch between each line. Then I folded the paper between each line. So it ended up looking like an accordion folded paper. That way when I am done with a row, I can fold that row under and keep the correct row at the top so there is no chance that I will look at the other rows and get confused.

Ps. The pattern is coming out great now that I’m not screwing it up.

#9

I sometimes find myself following the wrong row and wondering why it’s not working. Then I usually figure it out. Using a sticky note or tab to mark the row you’re on that hides most of the other rows helps.