A useful increase is the 'Make 1'—usually abbreviated to 'M1' in patterns. It can lean to the left or the right, and can be made on the knit or the purl side. If you twist the new stitch as you make it, you avoid leaving a hole.
The "sweater curse" or "curse of the love sweater" is a term used by knitters and crocheters to describe the belief that if a knitter or crocheter gives a hand-knit sweater to a significant other, it will lead to the recipient breaking up with the knitter.
Frogging is a term knitters and crocheters use for undoing the cloth. Why frogging? Because you “rip it, rip it”, just like a frog! Alternatively, you could undo the cloth stitch-by-stitch, known as tink-ing because tink is knit spelled backward.
Knitting is a Life Skill – 5 lessons knitting has taught me. My knitting design business has just turned FIVE years old and in those years I've done an awful lot of knitting and an equal amount of frogging and ripping back.
It's unrealistic to think you'll be able to knit a complicated lace or cable pattern without looking down at your knitting. Such patterns require not only your visual, but also your mental attention, and you'll only cause yourself grief if you try to read at the same time.