German short rows

Hi!! Im knitting german short rows on my socks and the gaps are hugeeee! Any easy tips on how go fix it? Preferably through a video as im a visual learner! Thanks in advance!!!

It may help if you post a photo of the sock. German short rows shouldn’t leave a gap or hole once you knit or purl to resolve the double stitch. There may be a gap as you are making the double stitches but once you knit across the double stitches, you won’t see the gaps. Are you working the heel this way?

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Is the problem at the “seam”? So the “teeth”, the two lines where the short-row stitches are resolved, are a bit loose?

If so, I have this problem too. I solved it by … switching to a different method of short row. Sorry, not very helpful!

This tutorial has a section halfway down the page that might help:

See the heading “How to prevent holes when knitting a German short row heel”.

There’s no video, but the main advice seems to be to pull your yarn tight when making a double stitch.

If that’s not what the problem was, maybe you could post a photo of your project.

Seeing a photo as mentioned already would be helpful. This sounds like a tension problem. I find that making sure the yarn is pulled snugly when forming the ds and then holding it taut for the first stitch after it makes a huge difference. I used to have loose stitches all the time no matter what short row technique I used and learned to keep the yarn taut for a stitch or two. When I resolve the ds on the next row/round I pay attention to maintaining my tension also.

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Not sure if i should redo with ur advices or just continue… i have only done one side

I’m pretty sure it’s a tension problem and you need to pull the yarn tighter when you make your ds and hold it taut until the first stitch after is made. I can’t quite duplicate it and the yarn I grabbed doesn’tt show well in a photo. I’ll look for other yarn and try again tomorrow.

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I frogged it and retried…. With more tension! It does look better!!! Yipeeee thanks guys

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That’s good news and good news is welcome. I’m glad it’s working better for you. I had problems with loose stitches when I started using GSR and still do sometimes. Some yarns are just easier to work with also.

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