Last week I took a two-hour knitting class where as the only student I was able to get a good run at this whole knitting thing. As it turns out, I’m not that bad at it I just need more guidance than a book could provide. With the instructor’s helpful tips and generous 40% employee discount, I left class with new 6.5mm bamboo needles and a hankering to knit a camouflage scarf for at least one of my kids.

The bamboo needles are a wonderful blessing to my aching old lady joints. The aluminum needles would get cold and make my previously broken (but now healed) wrists hurt after only a few short rows. The bamboo needles don’t seem to let the yarn slide quite as easily, but I think I prefer them anyway.

Saturday morning I got a great start at knitting my first scarf for LJ. The kids loved watching me labor at the needles and were eager to see what would become of all that yarn and all that work. It's plain to see that I was making several beginner mistakes such as tension, purling rather than knitting, and even splitting the threads to create a new stitch. I kept knitting on hoping that some of these mistakes would work out in time. It was after about 30 rows that I noticed my needles getting more and more crowded. I counted my stitches to find they they had grown from the original and intentional 25 up to 37. I had to stop and ask some more knowledgeable knitters if I was indeed making a mistake.

It didn't take the wise, friendly Flickr knitters very long to see that I was indeed goofing up and adding a new stitch to almost every row that I had knit. It is difficult to diagnose a problem via the web based on a written description of some crazy person, but boy did they nail it. The only way to really correct the problem would be to rip out what I had done and start again.

Since each row counted as a triumph in learning to knit, I just couldn't bear the thought of ripping out everything I'd done at this point (a mere 30 rows) so I continued to knit on despite the mistakes. My only chance was to decrease to 35 and try to keep it that way.

As soon as I spread out the scarf to take a few photos of my progress I just knew this scarf would be called Lumpy McLumperton the way an artist knows the title of their work at first sight. And the lumps were of course due to all the initial increasing and decreasing that had gone on (and on and on...).

Knitter after knitter told me that they had done the exact same thing when they began knitting so I became determined to help others see their mistake so they can prevent it and continue to knit successfully.

Here are some photos that may be able to help you see what you could be doing wrong. I recommend that you can click on the photo to see the notes; it might help my narrations. :)

Notice in the photo above that there is a loop that is not on the needle, just above my thumb. I'm not sure why I have that loop, but I expect that other knitters will say it's due to lack of tension - a common beginner problem. Since we are use to knitting by inserting our needle into the loop, our beginner instincts tell us to do just that with this particular loop.

But that would be wrong. :|

Not only would that be wrong, but it would add another stitch to each new row.

Instead, be careful to push that crazy loop out of the way or tighten it so that you correctly insert your needle through the first stitch on your left needle. Then you're free to knit (or purl) away on the next row.

I'm sure that I have correctly identified my own stitch adding problem, but this may not be your own problem. You could be a victim of a number of different issues plaguing your knitting so be sure to count your stitches at the end of each row until you get the hang of things.