Idle hands

I have recently taken up knitting. I am not very good yet but I am learning. I started with a book but the directions were terrible and the pictures were even worse. They were black and white hand drawn pics and very small to top it all off. So I asked someone who already knew how to knit and that made all the difference. Granted I still am not ready to start my first project, a scarf, but as soon as I do I will let you know how it turns out. There is even a show on the DYI network called "knitty gritty" and it's a bunch of knitter sitting around in a cirlce talking about knitting while they knit. It's actually kinda scary but if you get past them there is a girl who walks you thru projects and instructions and she seems normal, unlike her knitting party in the background. I wonder if they actually are talking or if they are just moving their mouths to make it look like they all like eachother and that they're haveing fun. If any of you know how to knit then maybe you could answer a question for me. Why am I picking up extra stitches the further I move along? The other night I realized I was up to 30 stitches when I only cast on 16.