Knitters: What the heck am I doing wrong?!

[Rachels]

Maybe this should be in the Bitching Post. Grrr, I am in foul humor. I am trying to start a hat for Abigail. I picked out great yarn, figured out the guage, bought the needles. I cast on the way I always do (have not had a problem with that), then joined the yarn the way a more experienced knitter showed me-- just knitting the stitch from the left needle onto the right one. (I'm using circular needles.) I knit around, everything going well, but by the time I completed the round, four or five stitches at the beginning had somehow unwound. Huh? So I tried the whole thing again. The same thing happened. Apparently I am more of a dummy than the Knitting for Dummies people bargained for, because their book makes no mention of this problem. So, uh, what gives? I can't figure it out.

-Rachel
Mom to Abigail Rose
5/18/02

[egoldber]

OK, this happened to me the first time I did this too, but I honestly can't remember now what it was that I figured out I did, LOL! I'll think about it...

[lizamann]

Me too! It had something to do with getting confused about which needle was which, like going backwards or switching hands or something. My 1st hat in the round went off without a hitch, but I had to restart the second one about 5 times before I figured it out.

Sorry I can't help but hopefully you'll figure it ouut!

[egoldber]

Oh, yes that was it! I think I got the "left" and "right" needle confused!

[Rachels]

When? Do you mean that you knitted backwards from when you first joined the stitches, or that you switched sometime in the middle of the round? I don't think I'm switching in the middle, so maybe I'm doing it wrong from when I first join them. Huh. The plot thickens...

-Rachel
Mom to Abigail Rose
5/18/02