Purling looks like a giant mess. Help?

#1

The title is pretty self explanatory. I’m attempting to make this Teddy Bear design. I decided to put a border on it just to make it into a practice dishrag. My border is “k1 p1 k1” but the only problem is my purling stitches look horrible (I think). I keep getting frustrated because after I finish a row it looks silly. It really doesn’t look like anything at all. Should I just keep ahead with this and see if maybe adding more will reveal anything? Sorry if this is a silly question :aww:

Also I’m using Lily Sugar 'n Cream medium worsted yarn and it keeps splitting up while i’m trying to actually pull the yarn through a stitch. Is there something to put on the yarn that can help this or is it kind of something every knitter has to deal with?

#2

Ribbing often looks wonky for the first few rows. When you do k1p1 ribbing, make sure that if you end with a purl, you start with a knit and vice-versa. This lines up the knits and purls to make the ribbing.

Splitty yarn is just something to live with. I find that I tend to adjust my knitting a bit as I go further in a project with splitty yarn to compensate. Just have patience.:thumbsup:

#3

Have you done ribbing before? A common mistake (ask me how I know) for beginners to ribbing is to fail to move the yarn back and forth between knitting and purling the stitches. You know how to knit, the yarn goes in back always for knitting. And you know how to purl, the yarn is always in front when you purl. But when you try to rib you get messed up on this, and I know exactly what it looks like. To rib be sure the yarn is in back when you knit each stitch and in front when you purl each stitch, move it from one position to the other between the needle tips so you don’t get any extra loops like I’ll bet you are getting right now.

About the cotton, I think you just have to live with it. Lily Sugar 'n Cream and similar yarns are not fun to work with. You could maybe try a less pointy needle for this yarn to help with the splitting, if you have one.

#4

I’ve been pulling the needle up between the points of the needle to the front when I purl and back when I knit. Maybe I will just work on a little piece for a couple of rows to see what it looks like before I start on that project.I buy the Boyle knitting needle and just the prettiest yarn (lol) I see because I haven’t found the yarn brand that works for me yet. Thanks for the answers :slight_smile:

Ingrid, after the border what if the pattern calls for say k7 or something. Do I just k8 to include the stitch on my border?

#5

Usually, when you do dishcloths, the border is worked in garter–knit all the rows. The ribbing tends to pull in, so you might want to try that. It could be that since cotton isn’t springy that the ribbing just doesn’t shine with it.

If you do work the border in garter stitch, then you would always work the first and last 7 stitches in knit on the front and back, and work the center stitches in stockinette–knit on the front and purl the back.

#6

I think cotton shows every little variation in your tension, and that could be part of it…ribbing is easy to do, but it takes practice to get it to look good, at least for me. One trick I learned is twisted ribbing. It looks a bit different, on the right side, but on the WRONG side, it looks almost like regular rib. So you could just make the “wrong” side the right side for your dishcloth.

To do it:

On the first row,( K1 through the back loop, P1) across.
On the second row, (P1 through the back loop, K1) across.

To knit and purl through the back loops, insert your needle through the left hand leg instead of the right hand leg, if that makes sense.

Here are some pictures:

Knit into the back loop

Purl into the back loop

EDIT:

I agree with Ingrid, though–I think garter stitch would be better for a dishcloth.