I haven’t picked up my needles in about 2 years and before then I was only knitting the most basic. Anyway, I am making a scarf for my 6 year old and using only 15 stitches. But, somehow, each new row is getting a new stitch. I don’t mind working from where I am (it looks fine) but what am I doing wrong???
Hard to say exactly what you’re doing w/out seeing it. But read thru these comments
http://forum.knittinghelp.com/t/faq-mysterious-extra-stitches-look-here?t=32886
and you may be able to figure out what’s going on.
It probably happens at the beginning of the row; when you have the yarn over the needle to the back, it can pull up the first stitch and make it look like 2 of them. So hold the yarn out to the side so you can identify the first st easily. If you’re doing ribbing, make sure you bring the yarn back to front [I]between[/I] the needles, not over them. And the thread Marilyn linked to may have other suggestions for you.
Thank you both! 
okay - got it! on the final stitch the loop at the bottom was sliding up and when I started a new line I was grabbing each of the two “sides” of the loop as two stitches rather than grabbing the actual stitch. Thanks again for your help, ladies
Yep, those two legs on the end stitch can make it look like there’s 2 sts there instead of one.