Hi guys!! So, I have a question about tension. See, I started knitting about 11 or 12 years ago, and my parents taught me. They didn’t know much about it. I learned to co from my mom, and the knit stitch from my dad. From there, I was on my own. I figured out early on that I knit loose, and the way to fix that was to pull my working yarn tight. So, I have gotten into the bad habit of pulling the yarn super tight. Over the years, I have figured out how to work with these tight stitches, but sometimes it’s hard to get the needle through. So, to my question. How in the world do I find the perfect medium between extremely tight or just loose? Should I go ahead and start a swatch or what? I would really appreciate the help…:mrgreen:
Tension
Try looking at the videos under the Free Videos tab at the top of this page, Knit. There’s a good demonstration of how to hold the yarn in order to tension it. (Also Google ‘how to knit video’.) There are several ways of holding the yarn and you can also experiment yourself to find the most comfortable way for you. Once you have an even, relaxed tension, you can adjust the gauge for a pattern by changing the needle size.
First, stop pulling the yarn if you’re still doing it. Then just practice on a square or make a longer piece. Find another way to hold your yarn; youtube is good for this as it has videos from hundreds of knitters, most of whom hold it all differently. You might want to wrap the yarn once around one finger, that usually helps.
Thanks gals!! The way I knit now is continental, bc that has always been more comfortable for me. I didn’t start actually trying to tension it til a couple years ago, bc I could never find anything that was particularly comfortable for me. So for a while, I was kinda just throwing the yarn with my left hand. But I finally figured out after playing around with it, that the yarn being wrapped around my pinky and then over my index finger. I think the main problem is now is to break myself of the habit of tugging on the yarn. It’s hard bc I’ve been doing it for so long. But I think you’re right, I just need to go ahead and do some kinda square and just kinda force myself to not do it. I will definitely check out some youtube videos and see if I can find something that will work better for my holding the yarn. Thanks again for your help ladies!! 
I just use a ball of yarn that’s too small for a project and just knit a small sample. I’ll frog it and just keep starting over. Practice, practice, practice. After struggling with different finger positions, I discovered that it’s best for me just to relax and knit looser. The key is to get in the “zone”. It’s almost like a meditative state where you’re relaxed and your mind kind of spaces out. Your fingers knit on autopilot.
I do get into the meditative zone. Believe me. Just for some reason, I’m in the awful habit of tightening the yarn. I was practicing last night, which sounds weird coming from someone who’s knit like 12 years lol, but I found that without tightening my tension is extremely loose. So I experimented with different ways to hold my yarn, and found one that seems to help. I do tighten a little still, but it’s not so much that it’s gonna make it so hard to knit. It’s just enough to make it tighter, but still easy to knit.