Knitting with one stitch on each needle

I made a bag from a pattern and it came out too small so I am trying it over and am going to make more increases, I had a really hard time starting the other one and now this one I can’t even start it at all, I am to cast on 4 stitches and divide on 4 needles and join in the round. I can’t stop getting the needles mixed up and the stitches keep falling off. Is there a trick? It gets easier after about 4 increases because then I have an crush square but the beginning is so hard!

I would knit flat for a few rows then join. You can fix that little opening with the tail when you’re done. I’m assuming its the bottom of the bag so it’s no big deal.

So I knit flat for like 3 or 4 rows then transfer and then begin increases?

Exactly. :thumbsup: Do as many rows as you feel comfortable with. If it’s heavy yarn you may only need a few. You can increase flat, too. Is it a felted bag?

No it’s a market bag. I just tried knitting it flat but the needles still got all mixed up when I tried transferring them ugh I’m using100%cotton worsted yarn the bag is on ravelry called flower power bag

I would knit it flat until it was manageable, too, increases and all. One stitch on each needle is pretty unmanageable.

That’s really tricky. A better way is to put 2 sts on 2 needles and use the 3rd to knit with. Then when you’ve added more sts and it’s larger, add the other needles and arrange the sts so there’s an equal amount on each needle.

If you do knit the first few rows flat, you don’t have to ‘transfer’ the stitches, just start knitting with a dpn, work a few sts onto that, then knit the next set of stitches with another dpn, and so on.

Yep, do the increases flat and knit a few more rows if you have to. Do this on one needle not multiple needles. You can knit off the one when you reach a point it becomes easier.

Did it! Have a big hole in the middle that I will fix when I’m done! Question is it possible to change to circulars? I’m finding there is too many stitches on each needle. The original pattern has 18 sts on each needle but with me making it larger I’m up to 25 on each needle and its getting to be a bit cramped

What weight yarn and needle size are you using? Anything will work on magic loop or two circs. I think 100 stitches will be fine on 16", but you might have to try it.

It’s worsted yarn 5mm I’ve never done magic loop so to do a magic loop transfer sounds a bit scary

You don’t have to transfer the stitches to start magic loop. You can just knit onto the larger circular needle and continue on with the pattern using magic loop. If there aren’t too many more increases, you could knit onto the smaller circular and continue that way.

Yes, change over to circs; a lot of patterns will start out with dpns for the center, but when there gets to be too many stitches, will say to switch. You can move to the other needles even if it doesn’t say to. Just start knitting with the circular, if you slip the sts to another needle there’s a greater risk of dropping them and it’s not necessary to do it that way. Just begin the next round with the circular in your right hand instead of the empty dpn.

There is a video in the advanced techniques section. Also link in my sig.

Ok so I tried but when I got to the last needle the stitches were too tight to transfer overthr needles were side by side

Don’t ‘transfer’ the stitches, just knit them onto the new needle. Maybe the new needle is a larger size?

With magic loop? The way I do it is knit across half of them, then pull a loop of cable out and knit the other half. I prefer a long cable so I have two loops. Sue seems to like modified ML. Personal preference.

Once you learn this method it’s so nice to say make a hat from start to finish without changing needles!

Don’t put it on the other needle at all. Just start a new row out with the new needle instead of the old needle.

You have the stitches on the dpns and normally you would start a new round with an empty dpn. Instead, begin knitting with the other needle, going the same way as if you were using the empty dpn. It shouldn’t be tight unless you’re trying to do something different to it. Here’s a video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSF-UrOmzFQ

Did you just knit from the needles or did you actually slip them to the other needles. This video is showing socks and just changing circs but you’d do the same thing to switch from dpns to circs. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSF-UrOmzFQ

I’m getting confused am I supposed to be using a magic loop method???

That video shows a lady already using circulars to transfer to another circular. I have 104 stitches right now divided on 4 DPN’s and I’m still not done with the increases. I’m confused what I’m doing wrong :frowning: