What went wrong?
Start with what you see in your knitting. Each point tells you why it happens, what to do, and where to find the technique.
- Edges and rib
- Holes and loose stitches
- Stripes and colours
- Measurements and fit
- Mohair
- Mistakes in the knitting
Couldn't find your problem? Send me a photo and I'll answer.
Edges and rib
The cast-on is too tight
The stitches were cast on too close together on the needle.
Use a cast-on with give, or cast on with a needle one size larger.
Stretchy cast-on →The neck won't go over your head
The bind-off is tighter than the rest of the knitting.
Bind off again with a stretchy bind-off. It gives like the rib does.
Stretchy bind-off →The rib is loose
Rib knitted on the same needle as the body often comes out too wide.
Use a needle one size smaller for the rib. Twisted knit stitches also make it firmer.
Rib →Holes and loose stitches
A hole under the arm
Where the sleeve meets the body, the stitches in the corner get stretched.
Pick up one or two extra stitches in the corner, and knit them together on the next round.
Hole under the arm →Ladders between double-pointed needles
The stitches where one needle meets the next get looser than the rest.
Pull the yarn a little tighter on the first two stitches of each new needle.
Magic loop and double-pointed needles →A stitch has dropped
The stitch fell off the needle and has run down.
Pick it back up with a crochet hook, one bar at a time.
Dropped stitch →A hole where you joined the yarn
The new yarn wasn't secured to the old.
Use a Russian join, or knit a few stitches with both strands together.
Joining a new ball →Stripes and colours
The stripes have a jog
Knitting in the round is a spiral, so the round ends one step higher than it started.
Slip the first stitch in the new colour on the second round. Then the stripe meets.
Jogless stripes →The colourwork puckers
The yarn on the back is carried too tight.
Spread the stitches out on the right needle before you change colour, so the strand at the back gets the full width.
Colourwork with two strands →Holes between the colour blocks in intarsia
The yarns aren't twisted around each other where the colours meet.
Lay the old yarn over the new one every time you change colour.
Intarsia →Measurements and fit
The garment came out too big or too small
Your gauge is different from the pattern's.
Knit a gauge swatch. More stitches over 10 cm, change to a larger needle. Fewer stitches, change to a smaller one.
Gauge swatch →The garment grew after washing
Wet yarn is heavy and stretches, especially non-superwash wool and alpaca.
Lay the garment flat and shape it to the right measurements while it dries.
The garment grew →The sleeves came out different lengths
The rounds were counted differently on the two sleeves.
Knit both sleeves at the same time, or count ridges and decreases instead of measuring.
Both sleeves at once →Not sure about the size
The size in the pattern is the garment's measurement, not the body's.
Use the size guide. It works out the size from your chest measurement.
Size guide →Mohair
The mohair won't unravel
The fibres cling to each other.
Put the knitting in the freezer for an hour. Cold fibres let go more easily. Unravel slowly, stitch by stitch.
Knitting with mohair →You can't see the stitches in mohair
The fibres cover the stitches.
Knit in good light, and put in a lifeline before the tricky parts.
Lifeline →A strand slips when you knit with several strands
One of the strands has come loose from the others.
Hold the strands together in your left hand, and check each stitch when you purl.
Knitting with several strands →Mistakes in the knitting
A mistake far down
One stitch was knitted wrong several rounds back.
Drop just that one stitch down to the mistake, and pick it back up correctly.
Fix mistakes without unravelling →The yarn ends show
The ends are woven in one direction only, or on the right side.
Sew the ends in on the wrong side, first one way and then back.
Invisible weaving in →The lace pattern doesn't add up
A yarn over or a knit 2 together has been missed.
Count the stitches after every pattern round. Place a stitch marker between each repeat.
Lace pattern →Stuck?
Send me a photo of your knitting and I'll answer.