Why is my project growing after cast on?

I’m trying to knit a onesie but it’s driving me bonkers! The pattern says to cast on however many stitches needed to reach 22cm. I knitted beyond the ribbing into the main bottom area and the whole piece grew to 30cm. I switched from 2.75mm to 3.25mm needles, so I can understand a little change…but 8 cm??? How?! My swatches were fine, so what am I doing wrong? I was using fingering weight, but I decided to double it in case it was an issue of thickness. Same issue. It grows and grows after the cast on. Is there a way to fix this? No stitches added or dropped, so what is happening :frowning:

When you made your swatch did you measure over the middle 10cm, avoiding the edge sts in your count? Were you working on the 3.25mm needles? Is that how you determine how many sts to cast on?
Ribbing is naturally going to pull in the knit fabric so that the stockinette section can be quite a bit wider. The change in needle size emphasizes this.
What is the name of your pattern?

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Thank you for your help last time and now!

I avoided the edge sts, yes. I knitted a swatch on 2.5, 2.75, and 3.25mm needles. After doubling, I swatched on the 3.25mm. I had the gauge of 15sts in 5cm. The designer said to measure stitches on the 3mm needle (only 10 rows of 2x2 ribbing done on 2.5mm). I did both to be sure that it wasn’t just the size difference. The onesie is knit in garter, not stockinette.

The pattern is here and here, not on Ravelry. The video has slightly more information than the written pattern.

I contacted her and she said that I should cast on 67sts based on her calculation of my 74sts over 24cm:

24cm=74sts
22cm= X sts
X=22x74= 1628
1628/24= 67sts

Just to clarify: does the onesie start with ribbing and then move into garter stitch?

Garter stitch is quite a wide stitch. It’s wider than ribbing, obviously, but it’s also wider then stocking stitch.

See photos in this blog post:

You might need to decrease a few stitches on the first row of garter stitch after the ribbing in order to get it to be 22cm wide.

Also, doubling yarn usually makes things bigger (unless you knit very tightly) so that may not be a good idea.

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Yes, as kushami mentioned garter stitch is indeed going to be wider than stockinette. Was you gauge swatch in garter stitch however? I notice that in the video the designer mentions “knitting out a little sample” without specifying the stitch but it should be garter stitch. The romper will then match up to the swatch instead of growing. (Sixty-seven-68 sts is correct for the beginning of the romper.)
What is the name of the yarn you’re using? Do you like the feel of the knit fabric in your swatch, not too tight or too loose?

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This may not be anything do to with it but thought I’d mention that i have found some yarns stretch out. I made a swatch and fully wet blocked it before measuring and went ahead making my top. The top certainly grew and I realise its the weight of the yarn pulling on itself. I’m not sure this is possible with a little baby inside though.
So, what I learned is that even with wet blocking, a small swatch isn’t going to necessarily show you how the project overall will turn out. My yarn was a DK cotton bamboo mix, not what i would think of as ‘heavy’ but even so it has grown significantly. Knitting similar pattern with same gauge but different yarn produced a top with no stretch.

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Yes, it does.

Thank you for the link! Very helpful

I am a tight knitter, so it wasn’t too bad.

It was garter stitch. Should I decrease if it’s not measuring up? I’m using a recycled sweater yarn, so no name. Just a merino fingering weight. I preferred the first swatch with single strand yarn. Doubled feels tighter with less wiggle room

Ah, I might try with another weight. Thank you!

If you liked the single fingering weight on the 3.25 needles then use that. Assuming you still have the beginnings of the romper you could use that as your swatch and recalculate the sts required for 22cm.
If the beginning of the romper has been ripped out then go to your measurement of 22cm +8cm as the width of 67sts cast on and calculate how many sts to cast on for 22cm:
(22cm x 67sts) /30cm = 50sts

It may be that you relaxed as you got into knitting the actual romper although it is quite a change. Let us know how it goes.