Knit stitch funky after a purl stitch

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

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?

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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.

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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 :slight_smile:

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.

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Thank you twin! :grin:. 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. :yarn::yarn:

Thank you. I’m knitting in the round (hat). My problem is the knit stitch on the left side of the purl.

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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. :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes: 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.

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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.)

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P.S. I have posted a comment asking about this to Patty Lyons’s column on the opposite problem.

Will update if she replies.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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