Unintentional Increases

Back to our discussion of how to avoid unintentional increases. Last time, we talked about increasing by turning Yarn Overs [YO's] you didn't know you made into stitches you didn't know you were adding. Today, Mme will shine some light on another very common mistake made by new knitters. [If you make a small swatch and knit along with Madame's explanation the following explanation will make more sense.]

While YO's can happen anywhere in your knitting, today's unintentional increase always happens at the beginning of a row.

When you're new to knitting, one of the important questions to keep asking youself is, Where does the yarn need to be in order to make the stitch I want? Failing to notice where your yarn is can give you YO's in the middles of your knitting, and at the start of a row it can give you extra stitches.

Let's look at what happens at the end of a row of Garter Stitch [Garter St] -- that's what you get when you Knit every stitch of every row. You've probably noticed that often the last stitch of the row [which is also the first stitch of the next row] is sometimes pretty big. We've previosly established that to make Knit stitches, you have to bring the yarn to the back of the work before you start the stitch.

So, if you're knitting along, in your left hand, you have a needle with 10 or 15 stitches ready to be knit, and you've already knitted at least one row past your Cast On [CO]. The yarn that goes to the ball is hanging from the bottom of the first stitch on the side of the needle facing you.

Whether you're going to hold that yarn in your right hand or your left, the correct way to pick it up is to take it under the needle to the back. This will make the big loop that's sitting just below the first stitch fall more-or-less into place, and it will allow you to see that the stitch you want to knit is sitting all by itself on the needle.

Now try doing it the incorrect way -- take the yarn to the back by lifting it up on the side where it lies -- on the side facing you -- and then take it to the back over the top of the needle. Can you see that two sides of the stitch below the one you want to knit now appear to be on the needle instead of beneath it? This creates the illusion that there are two stitches to knit, and if you fall for this scam, you'll make an unintentional increase! If you do it on every row, in no time flat, you'll have a tablecloth instead of the scarf or sweater you intended to make!

If you're working in Stockinette Stitch [St St] -- that is, knitting one row and purling the next, so that you have a flat surface on one side of the work and a bumpy surface on the other side -- you have to be especially careful when you begin your purl rows. Why? [Mme knows you remember this!] Because to purl, the yarn needs to be front before you start the stitch, so you would simply lift the yarn on the side that's facing you and that makes it more likely that the illusion of two stitches will present itself. But because you're developing your knitting awareness, all you have to do is to look closely at your work, and make sure that you're working the stitches that are actually ON the needle, and not the two sides of the stitch below. Try a few rows of St St, and see for yourself what a difference it makes to practice Awareness Through Knitting!