remembering i am a beginner, with several scarves and dish clothes to my name <g>…
i started a sleaveless shell in plymouth margarita-which is a ribbon type yarn, with little dealy poppers on it <g>…the pattern is a modified lace pattern (whcih i’'m conveniently forgetting…something like knit 2together, make one, lather, rinse, repeat, and then the next row is purl 2together…)
anyway, i keep finding that i am not ending up iwht the correct number of stitches at the end of the rows. frustration does not begin to describe me <g>. because this is a summer top, i’m giving serious thought to putting it down (cause it does not appear to get done this year!) and starting something fall’ish that might be easier…
or, i could just leave the knitting at turnpike rest stop and claim that i lost it!
Oh I know…my learning curve for garments was very, very long.
Instead of frustrating yourself by trying a lace pattern your first time out for a top, why not try a simple pattern?
After many, many, many tries my first successful sweater was a top down and once you get that first success, the sky’s the limit:cheering:
Knitting Pure and Simple (available on line at Web’s and other on-line shops) patterns are perfect for a beginner. If you belong to Ravelry, there is a “top-down” group and you can find a ton of free patterns.
Can you write out the exact instructions for the stitches? And how many you’re supposed to have at the end of each row and then how many you’re ending up with?
Don’t give up! Some yarns are more frustrating than others and some patterns are also. Put the work aside,wait till tomorrow and try to look at the pattern again. I would try to follow the pattern on a swatch with yarn that is more comforable to work with and count stitches. Could you write the lace pattern row again like it is written in the pattern itself? How many stitches did you start with? I didn’t understand what is “lather, rinse”…
when i was a new knitter (eons ago!) i thought swatches were a waste of time…
now i know better!
swatches serve several purposes… 1 being gauge, but they also allow you to practice/learn the pattern.
get some cotton and make a few face cloth/wash cloths with the pattern
first make a plain square one… then a diagonal one…
LEARN the LACE pattern on something that doesn’t matter, that is easy to frog, that has fewer stitches…
then stitch mastered, make the sweater (shell, top, what ever!)
Don’t knit, make mistakes and frog your real ($$$) yarn, make the mistakes in the cheap cotton… (and have lots of face cloths–(when package with a nice soap, and some hand/body lotion, they make great christmas presents… so they aren’t just waste of time swatches… they are useful and practical!)
I agree with Luv. most ribbon yarns have no stretch to them and some with texture do not work very well in a lace pattern. I am working on a shell right now in a ladder ribbon yarn , I am doing it from the bottom up on a circular needle in K. Just round and round till I get to the armhole then split for front and back. The pattern I’m using is called Blippity Tank Top. It is listed under crystal yarns and knitting patterns central. good luck.
I know how you feel… I’m make a skirt for my dd and I was having a time with the eyelet pattern I choose for it. I’ve been kntting for a while now and I wasn’t getting this one right…
Here is what I did… it’s 11 stitch repeat, so every 11 stitches I put a stitch marker. That way I could see when I was way off. I still have 2 little mistakes but my yo’s weren’t way off.
and learning the stitch pattern like of troy suggested can help a lot too.
If you do decide to put it down make sure you write as much as you can about where you are and what you have done, gauge, needle size, row # stitch #, name and website or book for pattern, etc.
Is there any chance that you are starting the pattern with the very first stitch of a row, instead of just keeping it in st st? That would throw it off.
Sounds like you are probably forgetting a YO here and there, or sometimes maybe forgetting to K2Tog here and there (coming up with an extra stitch). Very easy to do, especially with a complicated pattern repeat.
