I’m trying to figure out why my knit stitch following a purl stitch in my ribbing looks loose. I have read many articles regarding the knit stitch prior to the purl but mine is the knit following a purl.
TIA, Linda
I’m trying to figure out why my knit stitch following a purl stitch in my ribbing looks loose. I have read many articles regarding the knit stitch prior to the purl but mine is the knit following a purl.
It’s slight enough that it may well block out. If you don’t want to wait for that you might try tightening up just a tiny bit before you make the second knit after the purl.
Are you knitting flat or in the round?
As you knit is this the knit before a purl and on the RS looks like you knit after purling? I think, like salmonmac, that it’s not that great a difference. You might find this video interesting and maybe helpful.
I get an enlarged knit stitch after a purl stitch too.
For example, if I’m doing K2, P2 ribbing in the round, the right-hand knit stitch in the column of two knit stitches is always enlarged, just like in your photo.
(Annoyingly, the inside face of my ribbing does not have this problem. I have tried knitting “inside out” by tucking my work inwards, but the knitting gods were not fooled and my loose righ-hand stitch remained.)
My K2, P2 ribbing on flat pieces is not bad. Whatever quirk it is must be evened out by the changing of sides.
I see “our problem” in other knitters’ work, even in samples in books and pamphlets or by well-known independent designers.
I haven’t found a way to fix it in ribbing while knitting, but running my thumbnail down the purl ditch and pulling slightly can help.
If I have it in a transition from a block of stockinette to a block of reverse stockinette, I go back and adjust the tension on the edge stitches by either the thumb trick or adjusting the adjacent stitches to take up the slack.
Actually, until I saw your post just now I hadn’t realised that most of the “help” articles on this were talking about the opposite problem. So we are ribbing problem twins, if that is any comfort
I also have a lot of trouble with K1, P1 ribbing. I just avoid it because it looks horrible when I try.
In a design that has single columns of rib here and there on a rev. stockinette background, I do it all in rev. stockinette and then ladder down and create the rib columns after the fact with a crochet hook.
Something like this, for instance:
Sorry for the long reply. Ribbing is a bit of a bugbear for me.
Thank you twin! . He just really bugs me, I feel like there has to be a reason. My 1x1 ribbing seems ok. I do combination knitting for my purls and that seems like that tightens up the ribbing.
Thank you. I’m knitting in the round (hat). My problem is the knit stitch on the left side of the purl.
What knitting styles do you use? That might help lend insight into the problem.
This has been bugging me. I have the loose knit before purl thing and realized that how I knit affects that. I knit Continental and purl Norwegian and purling Norwegian goes a long way in helping correct the problem because (I think this is why) the yarn is always in the back and it’s easier to adjust tension. I also keep the yarn between the needle and the finger holding it short. Based on this I think Portuguese knitters for whom the knit is more or less the reverse of a Norwegian purl might get a loose knit before a purl. I’m not guessing that you knit this style. Just thinking about it.
Never heard of Norwegian purl. Googled it. Made my head spin. Purling not my favorite stitch anyway but it’s a rather crucial part of knitting. So I persevere and hopefully I’ll get faster at it. I thinks that’s what I don’t like about it. I’d be happy to do knit stitch all the time but the appearance of garter is also not my favorite. Oh well
Since you mentioned combined knitting, I thought of @engblom .
I have a vague memory of him commenting on combined knitting.
Any other combined knitters on the forum?
@salmonmac
@GrumpyGramma
#combinedKnitting
Maybe this video which engblom kindly made:
I wholeheartedly support choices others make. For me combined knitting sucks. Yarn belongs at the back of the work so Norwegian purling for me. It really did help my tension issues and reduced hand and finger movements. I know that’s not the solution for everyone.
The bigger knit stitch has to have tensioning the yarn involved somehow. All I can think of is allowing slack in between stitches somehow and I bet that’s as helpful as broken knitting needle.
If you enlarge the pattern photo for these lovely gloves, you’ll see an enlarged right-hand knit stitch in the 2x2 ribbing at the cuff, which is knitted in the round.
So this is a knit stitch after a purl.
This is what my 2x2 ribbing looks like, although my loose column is not usually quite as noticeable as this.
The two sides of the V of the loose stitch are “doing the splits” instead of kissing together to make a little heart.
I agree with GrumpyGramma that this is a mystery of tension. I suspect the angle we hold the needles has a role, given that this loose column happens in a “knit after a purl” for some and in a “purl after a knit” for others.
TechKnitter wrote a long article about the path yarn follows in ribbing a while ago, but I have to admit to not being able to follow it. I work with words, so my spatial reasoning skills are woefully neglected. Plus my brain is not what it used to be!
(This article mentions the “loose knit before a purl” problem too.)
P.S. I have posted a comment asking about this to Patty Lyons’s column on the opposite problem.
Will update if she replies.
Have you tried wrapping the knit that gets larger counterclockwise? Wrapping backwards could be just enough of a difference to fix it because wrapping counterclockwise will use a little less yarn. If that doesn’t fix it you could try wrapping the preceding purl backwards too. Tech Knitter has some amazing things on the blog but I find them too techy for me. She loses me fast but sometimes I can get something from reading the posts. I want the down and dirty quick fix. Once I can see the difference then the explanation might make sense to me. When you find a solution, please let us know. Meanwhile you might get more input here.
edited because some days I get stitch before and stitch after confused.
another edit: scrolling up I saw that someone knits combo so already wraps the purl the other way.
So enlarged knits only before purls is a myth just like everyone purls loose than they knit. Some of us tend to purl tighter.
GrumpyGramma, that is a good suggestion.
I did try wrapping counterclockwise a while ago, BUT I think I just followed the “standard” advice without realising that I had the opposite problem. So I may have been trying to tighten the wrong stitch!
I will tackle it again one day and post my results if I get anywhere.
I often get lost in the detail in Techknitter’s posts. The layout in a blog is sometimes not easy to read for me, all that scrolling down and down makes my eyes go a bit funny. I would prefer a nice large-format book with a summary breakout box showing the fix.
Here is a pair of socks I recently knitted all the way by continental combined style. Any slight unevenness is because I used double yarn and sometimes had a bit of tension difference between the strands. Besides that I do not think there is any unevenness. If you like combined style I suggest you just stay with it. Regardless of style, the evenness will improve over time. Your stitches are already very good looking.