Yarn overs and circular needles

#1

I’m a relatively inexperienced knitter, and am attempting to knit a simple cotton shopping bag. The pattern calls for circular needles, so that’s what I started it on. Once the bottom is knit in a square, stitched are picked up all around to begin the body, followed by a round of K1, YO. No trouble so far, but then… the body pattern is (Row 1) K2T, YO and (Row 2) YO, K2T. I got the first row done, but found that moving the stitches around the circular needle (and this is on 13’s) got them all tied up. I’m now laboriously pulling the stitches up onto the left needle one by one, because I can’t just get into the rhythm and knit around. Have to stop about every 5-6 stitches and carefully “skritch” more stitches onto the needle.

I have no idea why this is happening - but if anyone has a suggestion or solution before I frog the darn thing, I’d sure appreciate it!

#2

When you’re doing the yarn over, are you actually wrapping the yarn all the way around the needle? If so, that could be causing your problem. YOs just mean to lay the yarn over the top of the needle and knit the next stitch. Also, you may try and do the YOs a bit more loosely, if you’re having trouble getting them up onto the needle.

#3

Yes, I’m doing the YO correctly (not going all the way around the needle), but I do knit a bit tightly.

I’m in the process of transferring it to dp’s, which I hope will help since the stitches won’t go onto the cord. It that doesn’t work, I’ll be checking back tomorrow when I get to work (don’t have internet at home).

#4

It’s probably because of the size of the needle. The stitches have to stretch quite a bit from the cord to get onto the size 13 needle, and that can be difficult, especially for a yarn that doesn’t slide easily on the needle.

#5

How long is your cable needle? It might be that the cable is too long and the stitches are having to stretch to get around.

#6

I think I might have twisted the join, but it’s moot now; I frogged the dang thing and started a felted bag instead. When I go back to this one, rather than using a circular to pick up the stitches, I’ll use DPs until I get through the increase rounds, and then move to the circular once the pattern’s established.

Thanks for the suggestions, though - more food for thought!

#7

I made this pattern and found I did have a bit of trouble with the stitches trying to 'leapfrog" over the yo’s. I just had a little patience and had to get them back in the right order occasionally