Why am i still laddering? Ugh! Help!

#1

Ok, so i’ve knitting toasty arm warmers on DPNS and i’ve knitted like, 4 inches of it but i’ve noticed ladders in my work. Like, a few ladders before i go to the next needle…and I’ve gone to pick up the ladders using a crotchet hook - great - but as i continue knitting the ladders are still forming?! What do i do? I also have a hole in my work, funnily enough from where i picked up a stitch on a ladder, so i think i’m going to have to weave in a bit of yarn to hide that lol.

But yeah ok seriously help me re the laddering - and pretty please don’t tell to me unravel my work LOL! please because i don’t want to have to start all over again - I’ve already frogged this 3 times.

#2

It’s pretty common to have ladders with dpns especially when you start out. Practice seems to make them disappear. You can try tugging just a little on the yarn on the first stitch of the new needle to help close the gap. You can also move the breakbetween stitches by knitting the first stitch on the new needle onto the previous needle. If you do this all the way around and repeat it every couple of rows, it’ll keep the ladder from forming in the same place every round. Some of the ladder will ease into the side sts as you wear the warmers or when you wash them.
Using the crochet hook to pick up the ladder will leave a hole. The ladder isn’t a dropped stitch, it’s the connection between sts so you’re creating a stitch and leaving a hole that’s really a yarn over at the bottom of the ladder. If you do it regularly though, it could be a design element that’s all your own!

#3

The ladders are not dropped sts. You need not be picking them up with a crochet hook - sounds like you are making additional sts when you shouldn’t be.

Ladders occur when you move from one dpn to the next. The tension across the gap is a bit looser and you get a ladder. Shifting sts every couple of rows will help hide the ladders. Washing/blocking will further help even out the ladders/sts.

#4

Ugj i think im going to have to frog all this and start again…grrr.

I’ve also decided not to a) commute while using DPNs and b) not use DPNs again!

#5

Ladders happen with DPNs, but as soon as you bind off the piece and shake it around a little–or better yet, wash it–most of them disappear.
That said, now you know why so many knitters have gone over to circulars. You can use a circular on any pattern by placing stitch markers at the “put x stitches on this needle, y stitches on that one…” point in the pattern. Magic loop will help, or you can be weird like me and actually like knitting on those really short sock and sleeve circs :slight_smile:

#6

If you’re ribbing you can try wrapping the first purl the opposite way to twist it. It doesn’t show onthe outside of your work. It shows on the other side so it’s not reversible.

#7

No sweetie…im knit stitching

#8

When I knit with dpns I pull that first stitch tight enough to make sure the needle I’m working from touches the previous needle. It seems to help with laddering.

And they do tend to wash out.

#9

Oh, okay. Try to keep the stitches at each join from pulling too much. If you hold the needles a certain way you can kind of use your fingers to hold the two needles together on either side. I’d take a pic, but I don’t have DPN with me while I’m on vacation.

#10

I don’t have DPN with me while I’m on vacation.

DPN on vacation? :noway: Not when I can use circs!

Twisting the stitches at the beginning and/or end of each needle and then knitting in the back loop to untwist it on the next round might help. I’ve done it with circs when for whatever reason my work insists on excessive laddering and I think I did it on one occasion with DPN.