Knitting is basically magic. Take a ball of wool and two sticks and taa daa, you’ve created a unique range of mens Aran sweaters. If only it was that easy! Here are some common issues that you might encounter.

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1. Dropped stitches

   If a weird hole appears in your knitting, you have probably dropped a stitch. Secure the existing stitches on both needles and use a stitch marker to prevent further unravelling.

   Insert a crochet hook into the dropped stitch and without twisting it, locate the strand that connects it to the stitches in the row above and pull the wool through. Keep doing this until you arrive at your current row, then slip the stitch onto the left needle and continue.

   2. Extra stitches

   When you’re enthusiastically clickety-clacking away, it is easy to stop counting stitches and add extra ones in. If you notice in time, you can slip them back off. Otherwise, you will need to take extra measures to restore the size of your work back to what the pattern demands.

   There are two ways to do this. You can knit two stitches together until you return to the correct number of stitches, or unravel your work back to the point at which you went wrong, and then carry on.

   3. Inconsistent tension

   Particularly if you are nervous or rushing, it is easy for your work to become baggy or tight. Keeping the correct level of tension to start with is the easiest way of avoiding this issue but if it happens to you, there are ways of correcting it.

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If your knitting is too tight, try swapping to larger needles. If your knitting is baggy, you may need smaller ones. Wooden needles can help the wool to stay put better than it would on a slippery stainless-steel needle.

If it turns out knitting is really not for you, there is no shame in buying readymade mens Aran sweaters and passing them off as your own.

We hope this has been helpful. Good luck and enjoy your new hobby!