quick knitting help please

[Wick'n'Wax]

Ok, so I'm still learning and now I'm confused over 2 'stitches'

I'm doing the same thing for both and it can't be right. It's cast off and decrease

A pattern is calling for

cast off 4 sts at beg of next 2 rows.

(I'll try to describe lol)

I'm knitting a stitch, knitting another then pulling the first over the top of the 2nd and slipping it off (hence losing a stitch), but isn't that how you decrease too?

another part of the pattern is calling for dec. 1 st at each end of every row.

[Lorrie]

Can I ask what are you knitting?

[Wick'n'Wax]

Hi Lorrie,

I'm doing a cardigan, in a premature babies size. It's something smaller to learn with tbh. Knitted a large chunky cardi for daughter, and ended up with 2 fronts one bigger than the other and both longer than the back

I've figured that cast off is the stitch I know, k1, k another and take 2nd over first and drop off.

I can't remember the decrease stitch, is it sl1 k1 psso?

lord, its so confusing I'm writing notes now in my book

I can cast on, knit, purl but still have trouble knitting and purling on same row, I can't get the wool in the right place and end up with more stitches

[airforcewife]

when you are casting off in the beginning of a row your a pretty much doing a bind off which is knit 1, knit 1 and pass the frist knit stitch over the second one and then you will be left with one stitch one the right hand needle, and when you are decreasing a stitch it will either be a left slanted or a right slanted decrease and one of the decreases are slip, knit, pass the slipped stitch over the knit stitch and that will make it one stitch less, and the other kind of decrease is a knit 2 stitches together. I hope that helps. These are the notes that I wrote for myself when I taught myself how to knit so that I would understand it better.

[Wick'n'Wax]

thanks airforcewife, so if it just says decrease, then its a personal choice?

Think I prefer the sl1 k1 psso method.

Right back to this pattern. Unpicked it about 5 times already. It's hard being a perfectionist lol

[Wick'n'Wax]

right, as it actually states k2tog elsewhere in this pattern, i decided to take decrease as meaning k1 sl1 psso, but thats gonna get soooooo confusing when decreasing at the end of a row.

I think its with the last 2 stitches, k1, sl (last one) pass 2nd to last over the last and drop

[doris]

There are a few different ways to decrease, in most cases it doesn't matter which you use. K2tog slants to the right, while sl1k1psso will slant to the left. When you are decreasing for the toe of a sock, for example, you would put the k2tog on the left side decrease so it slants towards the middle, and sl1k1psso on the right side decrease so it also slants towards the middle. It just looks better.

Casting off 4 st at the beginning of the next 2 rows is usually done when there is a decrease of a larger # of st, for example, for a shoulder.

If you are doing decreases at the edges of a sweater, as, for example, with a raglan sweater, I find it easier and it looks better if you do the decrease 1 st in. For example, (starting from the right edge), k1, sl1k1psso, k to the last 3 st, k2tog, k1. Doing the decreases 1 st in would give you a firmer edge, and the shape of the decreases, in this case, will also follow the shape of the edge.

Hope this all makes sense, and doesn't just confuse you more.

[Wick'n'Wax]

thanks Doris

What I'm doing is, if its at the beginning of a row I'm k1 sl1 k1 psso, at end I'm doing k2tog k1

I did the cardigan for my daughter, but both fronts were a different length and they were both different length to the back!

I swear I got so mad, and then upset, then I gave it to my mum, she unpicked a bit and made it up. Fits her fine, although had to turn the cuffs up.

I've since managed (almost) to knit and purl together for a rib, although I still sometimes have to start again, as end up with an extra stitch. I know where to put the wool now whilst ribbing, but think I get the first one wrong, hence the extra stitch.

I'm doing a prem baby cardigan at the moment, back and fronts done as one piece which I've done, done one sleeve and doing other at moment.

Then want to do a basic prem baby blanket. Gonna do as many as I can then donate them.

One thing I'm having trouble with at moment, is going thru the back of the loop when p2tog, I'm just not doing it lol, don't know what the consequence of that is. Also, if I go wrong, I've no chance of unpicking and picking up the stitches, if I can't get to my mums, then I just start again.

Got myself some more wool, needles and a nice organiser bag

[doris]

Sounds like you're having fun. While you're getting stuff, get yourself a notebook as well, a smallish 6x8 one that is spiral bound, and write stuff down as you knit. The size means it doen't take up too much room in your bag, and the spiral binding means you can fold it back on itself so you won't need a table to put it on when writing. People laugh at me, but I write everything down. If you have trouble counting your rows, mark them down as you knit them. It becomes a habit. I also write down the needle size, # of rib rows, etc. I especially write things down when I have decreases, or 2 of one thing. The second time around, I just cross out what I wrote the first time.

I knit a lot for sale, and it makes it easy to be able to go back and see what I did last time. Also, with some things I have developed my own patterns, and if I wanted to, I could probably track the changes through my notebooks. And if I'm knitting something where I know that a slight change would improve it, I mark that down as well and highlight it so that I will remember to do it next time.

Before my mitten knitting days, I ordered 2 pairs from a friend of mine for my daughters. On one pair, one had a round tip and one had a pointy tip. Mine NEVER end up that way.