Sprained Dishwasher

Well Okay, it's not that bad. And I couldn't call it broken because technically it still works when it wants to. This is the situation: One day Joe opened up the dishwasher and said, "Are the dishes clean?" And I said, "Yes." And he took one out and said, "Honey, these aren't clean." I thought he was over exaggerating because sometimes if there is the tiniest bit of a crumb on the dish he thinks the whole cycle needs to be redone. So I said, "Okay, just leave them alone I'll take care of them later." So later, I went to look and sure enough they were dirty. So I just thought, hmmm, that's weird I swear I started it, maybe I just forgot. So I started it again. But, when the cycle was done, same thing, dirty dishes. I figured out the water was never going into the dishwasher for some strange reason. So I did a little research online. One suggestion was to fill the washer with water yourself, so I did. PROBLEM, water then never drained. So I had filthy water remaining now in my dishwasher. Luckily my Dad was coming over so I had him look at it. He just turned the knob around a few times and it worked. Of course. But then the next day it didn't work again. I tried lots of things and did more research online, nothing seemed to work. So I decided to do what my Dad did, I turned the knob around a few times and eventually it worked. And that is what I have been doing for about a month now. It's always different when it wants to work, sometimes I have to turn it only 5 times, sometimes 45, but eventually it starts working. But today, it worked right away! I didn't have to turn the knob all the way around at all. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed that maybe it's on the mend!
The dishwasher is barely a year old for crying out loud.