Weekly Megathread
Helping Beginners - Ask a Knitter - Week of September 28, 2026
This megathread is a place for a space for new knitters to ask questions and the skilled knitters who love to teach.
Think of it as your cyber knitting circle where you can bring your dropped stitches, snarled skeins, wonky decreases for expert troubleshooting!
A big thank you to all the experienced knitters who share their knowledge to keep knitting alive.
If you're a new knitter, also consider checking out our FAQ which addresses some of the most common hurdles as you start knitting. As always, remember to use "reddiquette".
Yes, in fact that's what I did with some sweaters after I had a clothes moth incident, because my oven is weird and small and I don't trust freezing. I have multiple delicates bags and put two sweaters in each bag to reduce potential friction, then put them all through the dryer, dry, on high for two hours. I did it with my handknits and also a couple of commercial cashmere sweaters and the worst thing that happened was the cashmere sweaters' halo seemed maybe a little fuzzier, like on their way to pilling due to the tumbling. No shrinking or felting.
Hi! For whatever reason, I am finding it impossible to follow both videos and step-by-step instructions for how to get started online. I am really embarassed by this, but I really want to learn. I wondered if anyone would be able to recommend some online tutors? I am happy to pay and am really hoping to make something knitted as a Christmas gift (a scarf!).
Hi there's nothing to be embarrassed about. They just don't work for you. If you want to share what you are having trouble with people might be able to give you some direction?
I don't know about any online teachers, but there might be some in person avenues. Local yarn stores usually host crafting/teaching sessions. If you don't have any nearby, many libraries (at least here in USA) have crafting get togethers even a few I found provide learning kits.
Yeah honestly I think casting on is the hardest technique to learn in the beginner progress. I personally learned from a how to knit book that had drawn images with arrows showing where the needle had to move. The article is totally correct in the long tail being the better to learn as a beginner. But I might suggest trying the other method (the single cast on) it mentions for cast on, and get to the actual knitting part. It's not the best cast on for wearables but would be a perfectly acceptable cast on for a scarf. After building some confidence you can revisit the long tail.
in slow motion multiple times that helped. The joy of seeing my first stitches!!! And once I got it, it was pretty easy to do the other stitches. So I’ve got my first row and now I need to watch the next step multiple times. But first I’m going to get myself some needles that are chunkier and don’t have the wire connecting them and a chunky yarn.
I would count the stitches in between the markers first. Do you have the correct number? If you have one extra, then you might have accidentally scooped yarn from the back and think it is a stitch. If it's an extra, I would just drop it - happens to me all the time.
I was just told by a kind stranger on tumblr that I was twisting "every other stitch" from this picture. This is double knit and my first ever project i've been actually enjoying and want to finish. every other stitch is a purl, so, am I just... not doing my purls right ? Do you think I should keep doing it wrong until I finish it or is it too visible/ugly ?
Your last 5 rows or so look fine, but there are large swathes of twisted stitches near the beginning. I'm guessing while learning double knitting you went through a period of slipping your stitches wrong which caused you to knit them twisted on the next row. Whether or not you restart is dependent on what you want out of the final project -the more you get used to the way it's supposed to look, the more that beginning section will stand out to you.
You have some twisted looking stitches/rows down below in the white only section but above in the colorwork part they don't look twisted. It is a possibility that you could have very exaggerated rowing out that sometimes could look like twisted stitches. But I can't tell from the image for sure. If you stretch the work out and the legs of the stitches are crossed over each other they are twisted.
Do I have this right…. Every 9th round work (x) amount of decreases.
For my size I would be doing 3 decrease rounds. So I would be doing a total of 48 rounds total.
The first part of the pattern wants me to do 52 rounds of stockinette before I get to this part which feels an awful lot for a sleeve…
My interpretation matches yours. Does the cuff start after the last decrease? So if it's a full size sleeve the 52 rounds likely is supposed to get you to the elbow, then you decrease along your forearm. If you know your gauge that can tell you how long that many rows is.
I often don't follow patterns for sleeves and do them to my own liking. I try them on often as I go and use markers to track number of rows and when I do my decrease so I can make the second sleeve the same.
Hello, help please! I knitted several types of stitches as samples a while ago and this is one section, front and back. I want to use it for a scarf but I can't remember how I knitted it, or work it out! I've tried looking it up and looking at pictures online but I can't seem to see it... Can someone please help me out? 🙏🏻
It may be hard to tell because I've used the fluffy kind of yarn, but what is this stitch called? It's where I knit one row, then on the second row I purl through two loops, then purl through the top loop one row and then knit one row and then purl one loop and continue with the purl two loops and purl the top loop. Hope I've explained that correctly
I'm making the Umbria top that starts with a tubular cast on. I think I would like to continue in double knitting in the neck band instead of the ribbing.
The advice I see around is to use a smaller needle for the setup stitches then switch to the ribbing needle. (2.5mm set up rows, 3mm ribbing, 3.5mm body)
Which needles should I use? Do the whole double knit band in 2.5mm? Since I'm not doing ribbing do it all in 3mm?
Hi all! I'm really struggling with holding the yarn and needles to get correct tension, crochet is the skill I learnt first. I start like the picture, but then my index finger migrates upwards until I can't hold tension anymore 😬 my nan who taught me lives abroad so I don't have anyone nearby who can help me. I learnt this way on youtube
Do you use that loop around your pinky to feed more yarn to the needle? Like... holding your hand like 🤚 and then stretch like 🖐 to get more yarn? I found when I tried to crochet with my yarn similar to how you're holding it felt weird because I wouldn't open up like 🖐 since I was using it to hold the fabric, and my index finger kept getting farther away from the WIP. Which is kind of the reverse of what you're asking, since obviously you're not trying to bring a method that didn't work for your crochet over to knitting lol but idk!
In case the emojis weren't super clear: I hold my hand basically like your picture, but then occasionally stretch out my pinky like I'm drinking from a fancy teacup lol. This feeds more yarn towards my needle, but allows my index finger to remain stationary right where I need it.
I am trying to pick up neckline stitches for the Hannah sweater by petite knit. It calls for 160 stitches but I'm only getting 117. They look even/not too tight, but I'm wondering if I should be picking up twice as many along the slanted edges? As is I think I thought I was picking them up correctly (the pattern says to pick up 1 stitch for every stitch all the way around.)
What's the pattern name? Have you checked the definitions of the abbreviations? While it's not ideal, sometimes, a designer will abbreviate a 2-over-2 cable crossing to the front as cf2. Look at the picture of the fabric. What's going on with the cable? That should help you answer your own question.
I expect the pattern wants you to do a 4-stitch cable where you cable the first 2 stitches to the front. But like i said its impossible without seeing what the project is supposed to look like.
I am making my first fair isle / intarsia style sweater and where I switch to the different colors the knit becomes super bulky and kind of pops out of the rest of the piece. Can someone please tell me what I have done wrong?
Not understanding older pattern that is a long pieced cardigan, drop sleeve. Just sewed shoulder seams. Picked up for sleeves. “Work 5 reps of charted pat until sleeve measures 1/2”, end on WS”.
At a gauge of 7 rows/inch, thats only like 3.5 rows… right? Is that odd directions? They begin sleeve decreases after that and work for 9”. Thx!
The pattern is telling you to work 5 reps of the X-row charted pattern. That's simply describing the fabric, not the shaping. It may or may not comprise the entire length of the sleeve (9"). Is it a 12-row repeat? If yes, that would be almost 9".
Then, it's refining that instruction by telling you to start your shaping decreases after working approx 1/2" even. (Usually a sleeve has at least 1" worked even at the top, but that's up to the designer).
You complete your series of decs, then work even until the sleeve measures 9" or the desired length.
What happens after the 9" of sleeve decreases? If it goes straight into the cuff, I would assume there was a typo and a whole number missing which would have been the length of the upper arm before the decreases.
Ah well, it could be correct since the sleeves are so short on the oversized body.
Any chance the "5 repeats" could have meant you picked up enough stitches for 5 repeats in width? (I was iffy because it didn't have different numbers for different sizes, but maybe it wasn't a direct quote.)
Ah, well I picked up 92 st for my size, they want me to leave 5 st in stockinette each side of that so thats 82. The purl bumps are on 4 st every 10 st, every 7 rows. The 3rd row of chart starts the purl bumps, after 2 st in… does that make sense? I didn’t think showing chart would be kosher on here…
My skein has a very weak factory knot in it so I need to cut it out before continuing. I tried following a couple tiktok tutorials (this one and this one) with a random things of yarn I have to not mess up my wip but some of the stitches look weird. Like a couple of them one leg seems longer then the other (I checked multiple times and they aren't twisted) and one stitch looks like it's disappearing completely. Is there something that I am doing wrong? The blue to orange is working from the side that is 4 knit 2 purl and the orange back to blue is working from the side that is 4 purl 2 knit. Or is there a different way to join that you recommend?
I am working on my first intarsia project, and I have realized that the pattern will be backwards. That’s ok, but I’m wondering how I went wrong with this-should I have flipped
I’m right handed! I’m wondering if I read the chart correctly: RS is read right to left, correct? I started from the top of the chart as well, so I wonder if that made a difference (the vest I am making is a top down vest).
You should read charts bottom to top (always) and right to left on RS rows. Basically the same order that you're knitting the stitches.
When you're working on a top-down garment, the bottom of the chart is your cast on or pickup (or whatever is at the bottom when you're holding your needles at the top).
Thanks for the reply, I appreciate it. I think my mistake was that I started this vest as top down without understanding that doing that would flip the chart. Now I know better!
Hello! I'm making the HoHoHo stocking pattern (Ravelry link: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/hohoho). I've got to the end of making the heel with wrap and turns but I'm a little confused by the following instruction and was hoping someone could help? I've bolded the part I'm stuck on:
you have only one wrapped st left either side, these are the two stitches from the very beginning that should be in a different colour.
Row 1: sl1, K to the wrapped st, lift the wrap over the st and knit the stitch and its wrap together tbl. Wrap the next st (the first stitch on your other needle) and turn. Row 2: sl1, P to the wrapped st, lift the wrap over the st and purl the stitch and its wrap together. Wrap the next st (the last stitch on your other needle) and turn.
This concludes the heel.
I understand knitting to the wrapped stitch, knitting the stitch+wrap together through the back loop, but when it says wrap the next st (the first stitch on your other needle) and turn) does it mean to wrap the stitch I literally just knit (the st + wrap that I just k tbl)? It's on the other needle now so do I slip it back off and wrap it again? I am so confused! I guess I'll be doing the same at the end of the next row as well but I am just very confused.
Any help would be so much appreciated! This is my first knitting project with colours/in the round so I am running into a lot of bits and bobs I don't know and this is the first thing that I haven't been able to solve myself with YouTube/general googling...
Thanks for responding :) I guess what is confusing me is that this was the last stitch, so there's no next stitch on my left needle, only all the ones on the right (with the first stitch on the right being the one I just resolved by knitting it and it's wrap tbl).
I hadn't considered until your message, but the heel is knitted flat on separate needles to the rest of the pattern, so I guess the pattern could be referring to the round needles that the rest of the stocking is on? Would that be likely? Thanks
It's likely a way to close the gap that tends to happen when rejoining the heel with the rest of the body. Good luck, this is going to be so beautiful!
You need to read the pattern instrux a bit more closely.
First, you work a cuff that measures 6 1/4" in 2x2 rib, ending with a RS row.
On the next (WS) row, you're doubling your sts from 44 to 88, using whatever inc method you prefer. (The instrux say to "M1 into each st...", but that doesn't make sense since M1 incs are usually worked BETWEEN sts.)
Now, you work even until the sleeve measures 18 1/2" (or to desired length), ending with a WS row, at which point you start shaping the sleeve cap.
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u/JustKeepLurking 12h ago
I'm reading a UK pattern and it mentions "knit 3 rows plain" what does this mean?