Hello,
It’s been a while since I’ve been here, but I know someone can help me! I’m knitting a cowl with a bulky yarn, size 13 needles, and is a 6 stitch cable pattern. The last knit stitch that is next to the start of the purl stitches is a lot looser than the others. I know it must have something to do with the wrapping of the purl stitch, but I’ve tried wrapping the yarn clockwise for the purl stitches and knitting through the back of the knit stitches (so they won’t be twisted), but the last knit stitch is still really loose. :help:
Does anyone have a solution to “tighten up” that one knit stitch or is that “just the way it is”. It’s driving me crazy! :wall:
I hope all that made sense. Thank you in advance!
Susan
Loose Knit Stitches - Help!
It’s a problem almost everyone faces either with ribs or cables. See if the tip in this thread or this site helps.
It’s normal to be loose around cables, but sometimes just blocking or washing it will even out the stitches when you’re all done.
If you’re knitting in the round or going to seam it then it’s okay to let the stitch remain twisted because it won’t show on the front really. Here’s a page I wrote up years ago that shows how I do it.
I will check it out, thank you.
And this would work for flat knitting as well?
If you’re knitting flat then you’d want to knit into the back of the stitch on the back side.
http://nonaknits.typepad.com/nonaknits/2004/12/a_bit_of_braggi.html
If that’s what you’ve been doing…twisting on the front and knitting into back of the stitch on the wrong side and it’s not working how you like it I’d go ahead and knit the stitch in the back normally and just let it twist on the front like I do when knitting in the round. If the back will show it will look twisted, but the front should be fine. Since it’s a cowl it’ll be seamed then anyway right?
Right! I took all the stitching out and am going to start it over.
Thanks for all your help! 
Yes, it just is and perfectly normal - trying to make the sts tight will probably make it worse. Do a few more rows then gently pull down on the whole piece and that should improve it a little, then it’ll even out when you wash the finished item.
Well, I’ve frogged this thing for about the fifth time today already. :wall: The pattern is knit flat and I’m not sure doing it the way Nona suggests is working any better or that I’m not understanding the instructions. Here is the pattern in a nutshell:
Rows 1,3,5,7,9: K2, K6, P6, K6, P6, K6, K2 Row 5 is the cable row. The last knit stitch on the cabling is a little loose as well. Ugh!!!
Rows 2,4,6,8,10: K2, P6, K6, P6, K6, P6, K2.
It’s very easy, but I still don’t like the way that darn knit stitch preceeding the purl stitch looks. Maybe I’m just being too darn picky about it. I always think each stitch should look perfect, and from reading all your suggestions, it just 'aint gonna happen and I need to just not be so picky!
If anyone has any other words of wisdom or advice, I’m all ears! Thanks to each one of you for your help!
Can you provide a link?
That’s why I suggested trying twisting the stitch and knitting normally on the back. If you look at what others have done with it I bet you’ll see that it’s almost always looser around the cable though.
This is the extreme solution but if you decrease one st on the knits before the purls and then go back and “ladder it up” with a crochet hook the way you would fix a dropped st, it will tighten up the gap. Cast on the correct number of sts but hold the knit st out with a marker. See here, pictures 3 and 4. Also, some of this may even out if you block the piece as well.