Hi knitting friends! I’m working on a cable-knit sweater and am noticing that the last knit stitch in many of my cables is appearing looser than the rest. I’ll post a pic below with arrows pointing to the looser stitch that I mean. Does anyone have any advice on avoiding this irregularity? Or do you think this will even out with blocking? The yarn is 1 strand merino held with 1 strand silk mohair - I’ve never worked with this yarn or so many cables before so I’m not really sure what to expect!
Loose / irregular knit stitch in cable
Your knitting looks really lovely and even.
The uneven cable stitch is a common problem. Sometimes there’s also a problem with a loose first purl stitch after the cable and this may add to the looseness of that last knit stitch of the cable.
There are a couple of suggestions that may help. One is to wrap in the clockwise direction when you work the first purl stitch. That will also tighten the knit at the left of the cable.
Ribbing also can give the same problem as can moving from knit to purl in general. This video shows another way to even out the problem sts.
Thank you as always @salmonmac, those links were super helpful. Going to try out both techniques and see if either of them help. I switched to knitting continental so I’ll have to see if my fingers/brain can handle the idea of wrapping “backwards” on the purl (funny enough when I was knitting english style before I was accidentally doing all of my purls that way… maybe why my cables looked so neat back then!!)
This happens to me almost every time I knit cables. I think yours look great and while u might want to neaten them up a little, I personally don’t think they need it! As long as the stitches are formed properly and aren’t twisted, they look great to me!!!
Keep up the great work!!!
Knitcindy
Hi @salmonmac!!!
I am having a difficult time watching that first video. The knitter is using a darker color yarn AND the camera is far away from her hands. Is there another video that demonstrates the same technique more clearly???
Thanks
Knitcindy
Knit Purl Hunter to the rescue. I like the first video because it shows the cable but the same is true here at the knit/purl transition. The trick is to wrap the yarn clockwise then correct the stitch mount on the next row. On that next row, knit into the back loop of the stitch. Knitting in the round you’d need to change the stitch mount then work the same trick.
I ended up trying both these techniques, and I think I liked the VeryPink technique better, where you pull the yarn around to the back and tighten it after the first purl stitch. I just didn’t see that much of a difference with looseness when I tried the twisted purl stitch, and it slowed me down because then I had to look closely and pay attention on the next row to which of the stitches were twisted and needed to go through the back loop. I also just tried to keep my stitches up very close to the tip of the left needle, and I think that helped a little bit - I noticed I was stretching them quite far apart when I was finishing the cable so maybe holding them that far apart was adding to the looseness too
Great! Working at the tip of the needle especially for that purl after a knit stitch is going to make the stitch smaller and tighten it up. That’s what you want here so if that helps it’s a good tip (terrible pun).