So, anyway...

[tencrush]

I'm still on holiday in France and, as you do when you go on holiday, I have decided to take up knitting. (I was going to watch the rest of season one of Torchwood but my laptop's getting a bit too hot to deal with it.)

SO... yes, knitting. It transpires that, even though I've done it before, I'm pretty darned awful at it. Advice required.

• I keep randomly gaining and losing stitches. I don't drop them or anything, I don't create huge gaping holes in the knitting, I'll just suddenly find myself with one stitch less or two more than I had before. I don't really understand why, especially the losing business. I know why I gain them, I think it's because I stick the needle in too low when I knit and end up with two kind of weird loops which I assume on the way back are both stitches. But I don't get why I'm losing them.


• The sides are AWFUL. I've been told and read that I'm supposed to stick the needle in from right to left and transfer the first stitch without actually knitting it. I've been doing this and I'm just ending up with about a 4-stitch wide tangled mess on either side of my knitting. And it's not like I do things really haphazardly, I'm really anal and tidy when it comes to any sort of yarn-related hobby.


• Speaking of which, the whole thing really is just more or less a mess. Does this get better with time? I think part of the problem is that I don't quite understand which part of the knitting I'm supposed to be keeping tight in order to achieve a uniform effect. Also, the neater I try to do it, the tighter everything becomes and eventually I can't even get my needle in anymore.


• Why can I purl but not knit?


• Can anyone recommend what wool I should be using taking into consideration the fact that I am obviously special needs and cannot cope with wool unravelling into separate strands. I end up knitting 4 of the 6 strands, creating a little loop out of the other two and then eventually pulling out the finished result in frustration and starting over.

I am giving the knitting until the end of this holiday and if it doesn't improve I will take the needles and fold them in half very, very happily, so that they fit in the bin.

Comments

[virginhuntress.livejournal.com]

You are most likely losing your stitches at the end of your row. Or, you lose them in the middle (if you put it down and it slips off) and don't notice it. You really wouldn't get a large gap in the piece unless you dropped a few, since knitting is much tighter than crocheting.

Screw the whole "don't knit and just transfer the stitch". It NEVER works for me and I've been knitting for a few years. I just learn to knit it as normal and then remember to try not to knit that last one too tightly, b/c if it's tighter on some rows than on others, you get lopsided sides.

It will get better with time, TRUST me. I was a crap knitter (and a great crocheter)... all because I couldn't get the needles to settle in my hand comfortably. Just relax and eventually you'll find your own rhythm.

Are you sure you don't have them confused? Knitting is what happens when you place your needle from front to the back and then loop, and bring the needle back towards you and then off. Purl is when you bring the needle towards your body first, loop around and push the needle through. Same stitch, just in reverse of each other.

You know what? Gimme a minute and I'll show you. :D

[tencrush]

I don't think I have them confused, no. I prefer the one where I push the needle in at the back towards the front so the right needle ends up on top of the left one. I prefer it because I can see the tip of the needle as it comes out and so I can see if I'm splitting the wool or not. I can't see anything when I knit and it bugs me, and also I don't understand the angle required for knitting as I seem to have to bring the two needles almost parallel to each other before sticking it in because otherwise I end up poking my needle through other bits of yarn. But, again, that's because the whole thing is really tight. I don't think those other bits of yarn are actually supposed to be as close to the left needle as they are, so I think I'm doing something wrong.

It really is just a simple case of me not quite knowing what to do with my fingers. I thought I'd have figured it out by now. :(