How to Fix the Most Common Knitting Mistakes for Beginners
For beginner knitters, part of the learning curve includes making mistakes and most are pretty easy to fix once you know what they look like. For a Knitting Kit, visit www.woolcouturecompany.com/collections/knitting-kits
1) The stitches are too tight or loose
Probably the top beginner problem is uneven tension. Most of the time your stitches are too tight and hard to get through or there is an embarrassing gap in between.
Easy fix:
Allow the yarn to slip through your fingers
If it does not, work a needle size larger or smaller
Always do a swatch of at least 40 rows to begin with.
2) Accidentally adding stitches
Your gauge is off; creating stitches in a wider piece
Common causes:
Accidental yarn over; wrapping the yarn over the needle
Knit through both loops of the space between two stitches
Doing something weird with the edgestitch
Simple solution: Count your stitches every couple of rows. When you find one, think carefully back to where the stitch appeared and re-knit that area.
The dropped stitch itself, however, appears as a small ladder down the side of your knitting.
Quick fix: use a crochet hook (or your needle tip) to lift the stitch up off each rung and back onto the needle.
4) Twisted stitches
When worked across continuous rounds or rows, twisted stitches can give your fabric a dense and somewhat cordlike appearance. Sometimes that happens when you knit through the back loop or wrap differently.
Quick fix: Ensure you are actually working through the front of the stitch (unless otherwise indicated) and wrapping consistently.
5) Messy edges
Scarves are particularly prone to have wobbly edges.
Easy fix:
Slipping the first stitch of every row (the same way each time) creates a really neat edge.
Pull the 2nd stitch extra tight, not the first.
6) Mismatching Knit and Purl Rows
If your fabric in the round work looks wrong side out, you’re knitting when you were purling or vice versa.
Quick fix: In learning how to “read” your knitting: when you knit and then look at a row of what looks like little V’s, that is the front or right side. When you purl it has bumps all across so this will indicate which is the back (wrong) side for turning around each time.
7) That you did not read the yarn label
Your project size and drape, for example, can be affected significantly if you use a yarn weight that is not appropriate.
Quick solution: use the yarn weight and needle size recommended in the pattern for at least your first few projects.
Knitting gets easier fast. Choose a small project to do, take your time and treat every mistake as basically an advanced knitting lesson – you will get better each time that you knit.
