Purl stitches switching sides

#1

Hi,

I’m a brand new knitter (3 days old) and I seem to be having a little trouble. I started working on a dishcloth, and everything was going along swimmingly (once I stopped adding stitches every row) until about half-way through. From that point on, my purl stitches seemed to switch sides. What i mean is that the v pattern was showing up on one side of the project for the first 20 rows or so, and now all of the sudden, it’s showing up on the back. What in the heck have I done???

Any help at all would be appreciated.

:slight_smile:
Michelle

#2

Well it sounds to me like perhaps you put the knitting down at one point, and when you picked it back up you started with the same kind of row you had ended with when you put it down. So if you ended with a knitted row, when you picked it back up you started a new row, also knitted, which would get things turned around.
Or, even if you didn’t put it down, you somehow repeated the same kind of row you had just done.
So you did it like this

KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK
PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP
KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK
PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP
PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP
KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK
PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP

And now it is all backwards.
Then again, it is almost 2am and I could be off my rocker :stuck_out_tongue:
At least you didn’t stop mid row, and pick it back up and go back the way you had just came! I did that for my first week, and I could NOT figure out why I was knitting a lopsided slope instead of a nice rectangle. Of course I was also knitting my knit stitches all funny. It was a sight.

#3

That is most likely exactly what i did. Hmph. Pretty bonehead move. I think I should start using row markers. hahaha

I’m guessing the only way to fix this is to pull it all out down to the back-***-wards row and start again? Boo. Sad.

OR I leave it as is as a testiment to how much I will have improved after this first project. It’s good to have things a little wonky sometimes.

Thanks for your help!

#4

Ya know, if it were me - I’d leave it as is and finish it off when it gets to dishcloth size. Who’s to say you didn’t want it half/half stockinette stitch on each side! It’s good practice for your knit and purl stitches. It is, afterall a dishcloth - no matter what it looks like it will wash dishes perfectly!

#5

Congratulations. you have just created a [I]‘Design Feature’[/I] for your dishcloth :slight_smile:

who says that that switch isn’t suposed to be there … just like thos ‘[I]ventilation holes’[/I] in the heal of my socks!

#6

The purl sides has little “pearls” and the knit side is flat with the v sts. If you remember that, then when you pick your knitting back up you can look and tell whether you are on the RS or WS; knitting into the knit sts, or purling into the purl sts.