I haven’t knitted since my grandmother first taught me a few decades ago so I’m relearning everything from scratch (it’s not like riding a bike, LOL). I’m attempting a simple washcloth where the first 6 rows are knitted. On my first attempt, by the end of the 6th row I noticed the edges looked wonky and when I measured my project it was definitely wider than when I started. I counted the stitches and found I had somehow increased the rows by eight stitches. In looking at my work closely I could also see holes and after searching online I came to realize I had added YOs by accident.
With my second attempt I made sure to count my stitches after each row and by the end of the 6th row I still have the same number of stitches on my needle as my cast on but the project has widened. I measured it after the second row and it was 7" wide. Now it’s 8". My stitches are fairly consistent so I don’t think it’s because it’s gotten too loose. One thing I have noticed is that my work tends to get bunched up as I knit from one needle to the other so after each row I have to stretch my work out so it lays flat.
Is this simply a matter that the yarn has stretched over the six rows either from bunching and stretching or possibly that I’ve been tugging on the yarn that sits between the two needles or is this something else? I couldn’t find anything online just doing searches.
I’d like to try and figure out what I’m doing wrong in case I’m picking up bad habits. At the rate this washcloth is growing it will be a scarf pretty soon!
Thank you for the speedy reply! In looking at my project again the cast on row is a bit shorter than the knitted rows. I did the long tail cast on to get the nice edge and I definitely pulled it tight each time. Would this be the main cause? It looks like it’s about 1/4" shorter on either side which would account for 1/2" so then I would assume the rest is coming from uneven stitches in the knitted rows?
I have attached a picture. Let me know if you need a close-up. I guess I have to do my cast on looser?
After looking at the picture, I still think the tight cast-on is the culprit. Even though there are some mistakes in the knitting itself, I do not think they add up to the difference in width.
Thanks for this. Yes, there are some mistakes in the knitting itself. LOL It probably is due to the cast on being too tight. Even if it stays at 8" for the rest of the project I’m not happy about the difference. I’m glad I posted to this forum before I continued because I can tear it out and try again without too much pain of losing the work I put into it.
You really know your stuff given you picked out this as the problem without having a picture! Thanks again!
You’ve done a great job of knitting so far. In looking at your pic, I don’t think your difference is all that much. I mean, yes you should loosen up a little with your cast on, but most of my projects get a little bit wider than the cast on and it’s not a problem.
Thanks for this knitcindy! I ended up re-measuring it and it’s not as bad as I thought. The cast-on row is actually 7-1/2" and the others are 8" so the difference is wholly due to the tight cast-on. I wasn’t able to do a proper gauge measurement because I didn’t have the right needle or yarn for this project. The pattern said 30 sts would give 8" which is how wide this is supposed to be. I calculated with my needle and yarn that 50 sts should work so was reasonably happy that it gave me 7" (and am even happier that it’s actually 7-1/2") but in fact it looks like I’m spot on given all the other rows except the cast-on have turned out to be 8". I’m still debating whether to tear it out and start again. Not so much because of the tight cast-on but there’s a weird pulled loop that you can see int he pic that is driving me crazy!! LOL After this row the pattern changes to the first few stitches are knitted and then a bunch are purled and then the last few are knitted. This is repeated for most of the pattern and then it’s finished with another 6 knitted rows. This gives a cool border around the edges.
Come to think of it if I actually lengthened this pattern it would turn out to be a cool scarf! LOL!!
Thanks. I will post a pic when I’m done. Is there a spot on this forum to post pictures or should I just post it to this thread? I haven’t been through the forum yet to see all of the post locations.
