Knitting 101: How to Fix Common Knitting Mistakes

There’s nothing worse than coming to a complete knitting standstill because you’ve realized you made a mistake in your knitting. You scream, you curse, and you’re ready to give up.

We’ve all been there so don’t beat yourself up. Making mistakes is part of the learning process.

In today’s Knitting 101, we’ll talk about common knitting mistakes beginner knitters make. We’ll teach you how to spot them, how to correct them, and, more importantly, get you back to knitting.

Let’s talk about some of the mistakes many knitters commonly make.

I Keep Losing Count of My Stitches

Working with any number of stitches, it is easy to lose count. There are a couple of simple ways you can fix this.

What You Can Do:

• If you’re working without a pattern or just practicing, cast-on with a small, even number of stitches. It’ll be easier to keep track of your count.
• Better yet, you could add knitting stitch markers to keep track. This will also ensure that you’re not accidentally adding or dropping stitches.

Better to be safe than sorry, right?

In the image below, you can see three stitch markers. Two are orange and one is yellow. The yellow marker indicates the beginning of the round.

This pattern I'm working calls for 150 stitches, so I've marked every 50 to check my count.

You can mark in quantities that work for you. There's nothing wrong with marking every 10 or 20 stitches. Whatever works best for you.

Want to learn more about stitch markers? Check out our guide on knitting tools you need.

Why Does My Yarn Keep Slipping Off My Needles?

This common knitting mistake is scary and frustrating but it's easily fixable.

In some cases it happens by pushing your stitches off the needle. In other cases, it is the effect of throwing your knitting in a bag.

Mostly, it comes down to the material of your knitting needles, the yarn material, or your knitting tension.

What You Can Do:

• Some yarns are more slippery than others. Try working with a different yarn material.
• Monitor your tension. Make sure your stitches aren’t loose or oversized.
• Keep a close eye on your work. Check your stitch count after every row.
• Take care of your knitting. Don’t set it down carelessly or shove your work in a bag. This could easily pull the stitches off your needle and undo all your hard work.

How to Correct It:

• Try using a different knitting needle material. If you’re using metal knitting needles, try bamboo or wood. Natural materials have more grab on the needle than metal needles do.
• Get ahold of your knitting, literally. Placing a finger on top of your stitches will keep them in place until you are ready to work them.
• Control your knitting tension and make adjustments as needed.
• When you set down your knitting, use point protectors to keep your stitches from slipping off.

Learn more about point protectors and other knitting tools in 20 Knitting Hacks to Save You Money.

Why Do I Have More Stitches Than What I Cast-On?

This knitting mistake commonly happens for one of three reasons: unintentional yarn-overs, knitting in between the stitches, or because of tension issues.

What You Can Do:

• At the end of every row, be sure to check your knitting. This will teach you to notice any holes or additional stitches.
• Count your stitches after each worked row. It will help you recognize mistakes sooner rather than later.
• Remember yarn placement when working purl (front) or knit (back) stitches. Pay attention to how you work your needles and yarn.
• When it comes to knitting tension, avoid tugging too tightly on the last stitch of a row. Doing so would cause the yarn to wrap around your needle giving the appearance of a stitch.

How to Correct It:

• If you have made a yarnover, there will definitely be a hole in your knitting. Tink back to where you made the error and remove it. The same goes for knitting in between the stitches.
• If you have over-tensioned the last stitch of a row and worked it, you should tink back and correct it. Otherwise, your work will be uneven and messy.

Don’t know what tinking is? Keep reading. We'll explain it all below.

Why Is My Knitting So Tight?

Knitting tension is, by far, one of the biggest issues knitters experience in knitting. It is also one of the most common mistakes knitters make.

In this instance, knitting tightly will create uneven stitches and cause gutters in your work. Not sure if this is the issue? If you find it difficult to insert your needle into the stitch, your tension is too tight.

What You Can Do:

• Keep in mind that some stitches require more tension, like ribbing and seed stitch. You will need to learn to adjust your knitting tension for different stitches.
• Try not to let the issue of knitting tension become a personal issue. It’s easy to get frustrated when your work doesn’t turn out like you envisioned it would.

How to Correct It:

• If tension has you stressed, take a small break but don’t give up.
• When you complete a stitch, snug up the yarn on the needle but don’t over-tighten. With time and practice this will come naturally.
• If you find that your stitches are too tight only upon casting on or binding off, the fix is easy. Simply cast-on or bind-off with a needle size larger to prevent your edges from being so tight.

Why Are My Stitches So Loose?

Maybe you notice just your edge stitches are loose. Or maybe you’re knitting ribbing and you notice some of your purl stitches are not even. Maybe your stitches were originally too tight and now they’re too loose.

All of these are common mistakes knitters make. Loose knitting stitches are caused by one thing. Care to guess what it is?

Yup, you guessed it. Lack of knitting tension control.

What You Can Do:

• Make sure both your needles are the same size.
• Check your yarn ball band for the recommended needle size.
• First, knit a swatch to ensure gauge.
• And, of course, control your knitting tension.

How to Correct It:

• If you notice loose knit stitches on a particular row or two, tink back and start those rows over.
• If the overall look of your knitting project could use a facelift, consider frogging the whole thing and starting over.

Learning to control knitting tension takes time, practice, and a whole lot of patience. Just remember, you’re not alone in your frustrations. Even the best knitters have bad knitting days, too.

What is Frogging in Knitting?

To frog your knitting is to take your stitches off the needle and rip back to an earlier point or to rip out your entire work.

For the digitally inclined, frogging is to knitting what system restore is to your computer. A safe point. A do-over. We all love do-overs, right? I know I do.

It is called frogging because you rip it, rip it, rip it back, which is much like the sound a frog makes.

Hey, I’m just the messenger.

What is Tinking in Knitting?

Knitting backwards, or tinking, is to unknit a stitch or stitches. You can either knit back stitch by stitch or frog part of the ways back to speed things up.

Why is it called tink? Because tink is knit spelled backwards. Easy to remember, right?

Tinking is just one of the many slang words knitters use.

Curious to know some other popular knitting slang? Read our Knitter's Knitcabulary to learn more.

We hope these knitting tips on how to fix common knitting mistakes helped you correct any you may have had.

Remember, checking your work may slow you down but knitting blindly leads to mistakes. Take the time to check. You’ll develop better knitting habits and improve your knitting.

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