Frustrated

#1

None of my son’s mittens stay on his hands, because they are too bulky to fit under his coat cuffs and yet the mitten cuffs are too skinny to fit over his coat cuffs. I decided to try making mittens. Today I visited a LYS near where I work with a friend who is also a knitter. I purchased a pattern to make mittens for my son, some washable wool for the pattern and new needles. I told the woman in the LYS that I just learned to knit, and she recommended this pattern, because it doesn’t require knitting in the round.

You would think this would be fairly easy and straight-forward, right?

I have cast on, knitted and ripped out the first two rows about five times already. I have now spent about 3 hours on these mittens and I have nothing to show for it. I have ripped out the sts so many times that the last time I just cut the yarn off and slid the whole thing off the needles.

The pattern calls for size 6 straight needles, co 32 sts, and then k1, p1 rib knit for the cuffs (approx. 2.5in, though I plan to make the cuffs longer than that so they can go over the coat cuffs). I have made two scarves, and have about 4 inches of a third scarf done, but they are all just garter stitch. I have done purl sts on my practice swatches, and created a swatch of stockinette that looks perfectly normal, so I must be purling correctly… why does my k1, p1 look like… a big mess of yarn? Shouldn’t it LOOK like rib knit?

Ugh… maybe I am destined to be a garter stitch knitter forever.

:wall:

#2

It takes a few rows before the rib pattern reveals itself. Just keep going and it will show up.

#3

Thanks, Mason, I am going to put my needles down and try again tomorrow when I am not so tired that I have to recount the stitches every time I make a new stitch to see if I should be knitting or purling.

:frog:

#4

i agree…it does take a bit…also, what kind of yarn are you using?

#5

:rofl: As a beginning knitter it’s amazing how often I do that. But that’s ok, things could always be worse

#6

It’s Wollywasch superwash merino, which was one of the very few machine washable yarns in the LYS. I wanted machine washable, because these are going to be mittens for a two and a half year old boy. Who wants to hand wash mittens every day? Maybe I should go to Michael’s tomorrow and buy some Lion Brand worsted weight wool blend instead.

:shrug:

#7

When you are switching between knit and purl, are you bringing your yarn between your needles? If you bring it over or under, you get a mess.

#8

Another tip is to not think of it as ribbing, its just knits and purls.

I was terrified by the idea of ribbing so I never tried it, until I was following a pattern that was written before language I think (very old-took a lot of transcribing) and it didn’t mention ribbing at all - but 9 rows in and I’m looking at the teeniest ribbing ever and there was no worrying.

It may just me be me, but its all psychological :woot: :yay: :oo: :hiding:

#9

I’m a beginner too. I tried K2, P2 ribbing before K1, P1…I found that a lot easier to get the hang of. Maybe you could try that first?

#10

Also, make sure when you flip the whole thing over to work back in the other direction that you are starting with the correct stitch. If you’ve casted on an even number of stitches and you end with a purl stitch, you will start the next row with a knit stitch. Make sure that you are not adding extra stitches in, or your rows will look all off.

Michelle

#11

Don’t you always have to turn your work around to start a new row :shrug: ? I have been obsessively careful about which stitches are knits and which are purls. I’m not sure exactly what is meant by going between the needles with the yarn… I keep the yarn close to the work and don’t go under the work or over the work when I switch from k to p so as not to catch part of the work in the loop.

Last night I took out the second ball of Lion Brand worsted weight wool blend that I bought to make my husband a scarf. I doubt I am going to use both balls for the scarf, so I cast on as if I was making the mittens and I believe that the yarn I bought at the LYS is not the correct weight for these mittens. The pattern calls for worsted. I looked online and the Wollywasch is actually DK weight (that is not clear on the label, at least to me…). I don’t know if this makes a difference.

Maybe I will to go to Michael’s and buy some worsted weight yarn to use and put this DK weight away for when I try something else that actually requires that weight.

#12

I had the worse time with that as well :shrug: Watch your bars and v’s. Knit every V stitch and purl every bar stitch helped… Also I was knitting English when I started trying that and had the hardest time swapping back and forth between the stitches. When I switched to continental it was ALOT easier to switch from knit to purl and back again and again.

Hang in there… it does work itself out :hug:

#13

I knit Continental, because holding the yarn in my right hand felt awkward to me, probably because at one time I did learn to crochet, so the yarn position felt natural that way.