Hello, sorry if this question has been answered already, I’m stuck with my phone for internet access at the moment and it’s too hard to sort through all the threads.
My problem is that I am a novice knitter who is coping with casting on and knitting, but my stitches always end up too tight. I was wondering if anyone has any ideas or tips for me?
Thanks in advance 
First, make sure that you’re knitting the stitches correctly. If you are accidentally putting the needle in the wrong side of the loop, you’ll twist your stitches and make them tighter.
More likely, you’re tightening your stitches after you pull the loop through. As you knit, just let the loop pull through at it’s own tension. Let the needle control the size of the stitch–don’t tighten it.
If you’re still having trouble, your yarn and needles may not be suited to each other–too heavy a yarn for the size needle.
Thanks I’ll revisit the knitting vid just in case…it seems like no matter how much I try to keep them loose, it just doesn’t work. Maybe I am doing it wrong.
The trick, Betty, is to pull gently when you pull your knit stitch through and let the yarn flow smoothly from your hand, or don’t hold onto it at all. I’m a tight stitcher, doesn’t matter the craft, and only in the recent weeks have I learned to do ANYTHING loosely.
Thanks so much to you both!! I have reviewed the how to video and I think it’s actually because I haven’t been pushing the stitch onto the full diameter if the needle. So my stitches have been way too tight. I think that with fixing that issue and practicing keeping it loose, I may be all sorted - for this issue anyway!
If you’re having a lot of problems knitting your first row, you could always cast on with a larger needle. I do that sometimes because I find it hard to cast on loosely [I]and [/I]evenly with some yarns.