Fixing back gap in an i-cord? (not edging — its own project)

Hello! I’m new here — I know they exist but I prefer the classic forum feel to other sites.

I’m trying to make knitted flowers with flower stems — the stems will be made as i-cord. I have not done i-cord before, but it’s very simple and I am competent and can follow directions, so…(??) Baffled as to why this continues.

I have tried to knit, unknit and reknit the starting of this several times over and correct this problem myself. But the back consistently looks like a gap/similar to the look of laddering in the middle of a project — pieces of yarn stretching across that gap, from where the one edge is meant to connect directly to the other. It does not matter how much I try to pull them tightly together mid-knitting. It does not go.

Yarn is roughly DK/light worsted, cotton, and needles are US 5.

Thank you for any help you may have! And Happy (late) New Year! :slight_smile:

M

How many stitches are you doing for each? Are you using dpns?

I am doing four stitches. Using circulars, but I have tried both the method of sliding it to the other end, and treating them as if they were separate needles by moving them from one needle to the other. I have watched videos, so I am unsure of what else to do to fix this gap.

Give a slight tug to the first stitch after the slide. You want to close up the gap with slightly more tension than you would normally use.

Try with a different yarn, just as a test… I wonder if it’s because cotton has little stretch.

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@salmonmac I have done more than a tug and even used quite a bit of tension to try to fix it. (If anything, my knitting started out as too tense, and reverts to that any time that I start to knit after a break — though these days I have successfully loosened it.) So that’s definitely doable on purpose, but it is doing nothing.

@YarnPlease Could be! Not used to cotton yarn. I bought it for a project for a very organic fabrics focused acquaintance, but it was the wrong weight and I couldn’t return it, so — trying to use it for something else.

Hello
Can you post a pic of your knitting to show us the part you aren’t happy with?
Did you make sure to continue knitting for a decent length so the yarn and stitches had a chance to relax away from the needles? Sometimes stitches can look really awkward until they are worked away from.

How much do you have?
I made some face/washcloths with cotton yarn and they are still great with daily use years later. I’ve not used cotton for anything else (other than lifelines).

@Creations I decided to start over, so I will post a pic when I have enough length to take the latter advice

@YarnPlease Good idea :slight_smile:

Thank you both and I’ll see how it goes!

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These are the ones I did https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/diagonal-dishcloth-9 Super easy, and like I said stand up well to daily use.

@Creations I took your advice, as well as restarting with six stitches across, instead of four. That combination seems to have done the trick (knock on wood)!

Here’s my current work :slight_smile:

Also, I took this advice, of “rolling it like playdough,” and it seems to slightly help, too:

https://youtube.com/shorts/E6CEPniaDRg

I notice that her result still has a mild gap at the bottom, even though she says “it’s smooth all the way around” — kind of relieving and a reminder to dirch the perfectionism. Tbh that’s been about 3/4 of my creative block. Right now I am just trying to throw anything at the wall to make it stick/make things flow again.

@YarnPlease Thank you for the idea — those are prettier than regular, bought washcloths, and cotton must be kinder to the face, too…hmm….

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Well, this looks very successful.

If you’re making flowers you might not be planning to wash the item but it may be worth a trial anyway. Washing, or steaming, or laying the knit fabric inside damp tea towels and leaving to dry, can help to even out and pump up stitches too. Even if it’s not intended for a wearbale/washable project you might want to see what difference it makes.

Is there a pattern you’re using for the flowers?

I’ve made a couple of tops and sweaters out of cotton yarn and they’ve been nice. My son chose cotton for his last couple of sweaters, he seems to prefer it.

Thank you for the idea. This one won’t be worn (probably) but future versions may.

I haven’t decided on patterns for the flowers. Even if I do, I might just heavily tweak and combining multiple so they basically end up as guidelines/lessons for knitting flowers, rather than being followed as such. I want it to be as original as possible because I might sell my work eventually.

Am I right in guessing that even thicker cotton yarn (which I bought this in the hopes of it being, ha) makes for pretty lightweight fabrics? Unless you hold strands together…?

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Sounds fun to try out various patterns with modifications. Please post some pics when you can.

I’m not the person to answer about yarn weight, but others may jump in.
My experience with cotton is it’s quite ‘weighty’ in comparison to some other yarns. Acrylic is very light, a cashmere merino silk I used was light too, and I haven’t used them but I think blown yarns are light for their thickness. I suppose comparing meterage to ball weight would lead to finding a light yarn with a lot of length.

A cotton blend is going to be lighter than all cotton yarn. All cotton tends to be heavy and to stretch out of shape. Blends with acrylic, linen, wool, almost any other fiber work well with cotton and let the beauty of the fiber shine through.

Thanks for the insight on weight. At that time I was specifically seeking total cotton because of the person I had in mind and their disuse of anything but natural fibers, with most blends I saw containing acrylic. If I were to go wool, my thought then was that I would just go wool and not bother with cotton. (But then run into the blend problem again…) But interesting to know, about the blend heightening the result, in a way.