I always had my students cast on ten stitches. It gave me a
I always had my students cast on ten stitches. It gave me a chance to explain that the slip knot they made was counted as a stitch. Following the instructions presented in the knit section, they were instructed to knit a row, turn the work, and knit another row. At the end of every row, they should count how many stitches are on the needle. Our goal is a squared corner piece as shown in first picture.
The seond picture shows a typical example of extra stitches being added as a resut of improper placement of yarn.The usual reason for these extra stitches is that the yarn is not held to the rear of the knitting as a stitch is being formed. If you hold the yarn in front of the knitting as you make the first stitch of a row, that yarn has to wrap the needle to get in the correct spot for the first intended stitch. That accidental wrap becomes the first stitch. Thus the stitch count increases and a sloped edge result.
This most often happened when students started doing stockinette stitch. When starting a knit row, the yarn is held to the rear. When starting a purl row, the yarn is held to the front.
