I am new to knitting and new to this site! I love the videos and I watch them every time I pick up my knitting needles, yet I am still completely incompetent and canāt knit
I can handle casting on, and making a regular knit stitch, but I seriously cannot purl. I have a problem though that I think is hindering my process in generalā¦
My āstitchesā are really tight. Does that make sense? My plastic needles literally squeak because my stitches are so tight, and I oftentimes have to unravel everything because I cannot fit my needles through a stitch. Iāve tried casting on really loosely, but it doesnāt seem to help. Iāve been trying to learn how to āincreaseā and I canāt seem to fit my needles through anythingā¦
Itās really frustrating and I have no clue what I am doing wrong. Is this common? Does it have to do with the way Iām holding the yarn in my right hand? (oh I follow the English/right hand method)
When you pull the loop through the stitch as you knit, push the right needle into the new loop, so that the loop is going around the full diameter of the right needle. Itās common to make a stitch with just the tip of the right needle, where the diameter is smaller: that will make a smaller (tighter!) stitch. So, push it through as youāre pulling the old stitch off the left needle.
I am also new to knittingā¦one tip I heard was while casting on use 2 needles on top of each other, remove one for a looser cast on. This worked for me. Also my mom taught me to knit like a āglidingā motion, and thinking of the gliding helped me loosen the yarn up. Try not to have a death grip and let it glideā¦
From a formerly tight new knitter
Chris
Ohh Iāve read about the 2 needle cast on trick but I never bothered to try it. I guess now that I have a recommendation Iāll give it a shot! Thanks Chris!
And yes, youāre right Amy, Iām notoriously bad for just working at the very itty bitty tip of my needles and then everything slides off anyway haha and then when I do try to push my stitches down itās impossible, and alas, I have to unravel everything again!
I find knitting very difficult. I have yet to actually knit anything, since I am constantly messing it up. I am trying to learn from websites and books, and I think I would do better if I had someone to teach me!
RELAX is the key. If your first bit of knitting is full of holes, nevermind.
Dont get grumpy about your progress. Why not start with just a square of garter stitch (just knit stitches, no purl). Make a few, sew them together and call it a baby blanket.
Then try one in stockinette (knit and purl).
If youād like someone to teach you, try hanging out in your local yarn store and get someone to take pity on you. Just ambush a fellow knitter and ask for help. I bet theyād be more than happy to.
I had this problem when I tried cirucular boye needles for the first time. I could knit and purl well on straight ones but with the boye, It was hard to put the needles into the stitches and also the eyarn would snag.
after that I tried both susan bates and knit picks and both work perfectly.
Most new knitters seem to have a tendency to make a three-step process into four steps. (1) Insert the right needle into the stitch, (2) wrap the yarn around the needle, (3) pull the new stitch through, (4) tug the yarn to tighten the stitch.
Donāt add step fourāthereās no need to tug on the stitch. Simply knitting the next stitch will tighten it up properly, without making things too tight.
This may not apply to you, but itās very common.
Yup, I used to knit much tighter when I started too. Very common problem. One thing I did too, was wrapping my yarn āwrongā - it made my stitches sit twisted and very hard to work from the front. Once I figured that out life got a lot easier.
There were a lot of valuable tips already (especially the needle tip / needle body thing!). But I am worried there could be another problem since it seems you are learning from videos only, not with a person:
does your yarn fit your needles? a lot of self taught beginners start with just any yarn and needlesā¦ then the result is bulky or tight knittingā¦
for a good result I advice to take a yarn with some give (a yarn that stretches a lot or little when you pull it). Then the yarn will be a little more forgiving to tight knitting. Cotton often has no give at all, so it makes it tight - but it is often colorful and cheap and therefore is appealing to knitters
the other thing is: if your yarn is too thick for your needles (or very thick in comparison) then there is a lot of material to masterā¦ that turns very thickā¦
the reason is the following:
if you see the needle: it is round, so the measure around is twice the radius (or once the diameter) times pi. you can just find out how much yarn you use for a stitch.
on a needle with 5 milimeter diameter there is an approximate way of 15 mm around the needleā¦
now for getting a stitch worked, you need to get the yarn twice throught that loop. The size of the loop depends on the needle. the size of the yarn has to match now.
if the 15 mm loop has to go around yarn that is 6 milimeters thick, for example: then there is 12 mm yarn in between - and that is very tight.
the good thing: yarns do lable - mostly - what size needle is recommended.
please do yourself the favor and stick with that recomendation until you know just all about yarn and knitting - or at least a bit more
do you have the chance to make a video of you knitting? then we could comment on the actual process.
Itās true the OP probably figured it out a long time ago, but someone new and searching for ātight stitchesā will likely find some good information here.
True, true! I didnāt mean to sound snarky, I just didnāt want anyone to wonder why the OP never responded!
Iām still a tight knitter after 3 YEARS! When I knit stockinette circularly, I put a smaller tip on the left hand needle than the right, so the stitches slide more easily. It does not affect gauge since the right hand needle determines the size of the stitches (if you are knitting regularly and not a lefty knitting ābackwardsā). This helps reduce fatigue on my hands from sliding stitches along when Iām knitting something large like a sweater.
When I knit back and forth, I donāt run into that problem much, since my purls are a little looser.
