Loopy first row

How-to Questions
1

I didn’t see a thread for this when I did a quick search, but I could be blind.

I’ve been knitting off and on for a few years, more off than not due to a pinched ulna nerve, and have always had a ‘loopy’ first row.

My cast-on seems to be tight and the first row, I pull the yarn tight, but I still get this:

How can I get rid of these? The start of my work always looks incredibly tacky as my bind-off is very smooth.

Thanks so much for the help :slight_smile:
Julie

2

Welocme to KnittingHelp!
What kind of cast on are you using?
You might try an alternate cast on or perhaps not tightening the cast on so much.

3

Hello Julie, and welcome to knittinghelp.

I think there’s two reasons you’ve got a loopy cast on. First, you properbly doing the Knitting On Cast On, which naturally tends to be a bit loopy. Second, pulling the first row of knitting tight highlights the contrast between the knitting and Cast On. You may find the Cable Cast On a better option.

If you hover over the Free Videos tab at the top of the page and click on Cast Ons you can the scroll down to the relevant videos and take a look at them.

Good Luck

Julie

4

Thanks for the welcome and the advice.

I’ve tried different cast-ons throughout the years and did it again after reading both of your comments and it’s pretty much the same so… I ended up getting some small needles - 2 US 2.75mm - and using them to create my cast-on and first row and then bumping up to the called-for size the my pattern noted. This has helped considerably; it’s much more neat and looks fantastic.

I’ll still continue to play around to see if it’s a tension issue or maybe just the wrong needle size/yarn combination. Until then, I guess I’ll just stick with this way /chuckle.

Thanks again :slight_smile:

5

Thanks for letting us know what you decided to do.

You did better casting on with smaller needles? I think that’s the first time I’ve come across this helping. Wow! Hey, you must be casting on very, very, very loosely. If it works for you, it works for you! I’m glad you came up with a way to compensate for the less than satisfactory beginning. Something else you might look at is using a provisional cast on and then doing a bind off with it when you’re done, that way both edges would match. If you’re interested in looking into it there are a lot of ways to do a provisional cast on that will let you have live stitches and links can shared.

6

I think it would be interesting for you to CO and work a first row in front of another knitter. Maybe by seeing what you are doing s/he could pick up on something that is causing the “loopiness.”