Intro and Question

[roh_wyn]

Hi there! Total knitting newbie here

Comments

[westly_roanoke]

Ah! you probably crossed your yarn as you were doing some purls (or purling as you were supposed to knit!)

It's a pretty common mistake that is easy for even pros to do (I know I forget WTF I'm doing every so often!

You can always decrece with a k2tog (That's Knit 2 together, so you put your needles through two loops at once!), but that'll leave your scarf looking kind of lumpy in the middle. How many rows have you gone? Say if you've gone 40 rows, you can k2tog every five rows to even it out on a knit row randomly for the next 40 rows!

Hope that helps!

[concrete_queen]

My guess would be that you're knitting with the yarn in front, which will create an extra stitch when you loop it around to the back when you knit with it. It's a really common mistake beginners make. Are there small holes in your knitting? That's a telltale sign of this. Make sure your yarn is in back!

[itsnotfairlaika]

Ah you know what, that used to (and still does sometimes!) happen to me a lot. I never realized that's what the problem was!

[emzilyn]

I did that, or something like it, on every row of the first scarf I tried to make. I was using 3/4 inch needles and I wasn't paying attention, so I didn't realise until I was a quarter way through the scarf and the width was around twice the length. I k2tog'd one pair off the length for every row that followed, and ended up with a large shawl instead. :)

[crazykitties03]

My first scarf attempt was with a furry ribbon. When I pulled the stitch off the needle, the yarn would catch and not actually pull correctly. I wish I could explain it better, but what it wound up doing was making it look like two stitches on the needle so when I would go to the next row, I would knit each one of those and wound up with extra stitches and a big lumpy mess on one side. I put away the furry yarn after that!

[roh_wyn]

Oh! You know what? This might be my problem, because my yarn is quite fuzzy, and sometimes the extra fuzz does make me think I have another stitch on the needle.

Thanks for the hint!

[beautifulso_up]

That happened with my first attempt, but I only noticed once I'd actually finished the whole thing! ONe end is about 3" wider than the other, but I just left it because I'm lazy like that. It looks a bit silly, but it's warm so I put up with it. :P

Check the last stitch/first stitch

[irishlacenet]

When you knit the last stitch of a row, and you drop that last stitch off the left needle, it may still be relatively high in relation to the other stitches. Then, when you turn your work, that old stitch can look like it's the new stitch. Even worse, you see both legs of the old stitch, and you can end up knitting into each of them. Instant increase.

If that's your problem, you can avoid this by being extra careful with that first stitch, or by slipping the first stitch.

If you are switching between knits and purls, then the most likely culprit would be accidental yarn overs. But for plain knitting... that first/last stitch is what I would check first.

Good luck!