Weird stripes in stockinette?

#1

Hi all,

This is my very first post here. I"m a relatively new knitter attempting a sweater (I’ve made hats and scarves, but a girl can only have so many… and my family/friends are getting tired of them). I started knitting up my gauge swatch and I noticed that I have these weird stripes forming when I switch between knit and purl. I think I knit one looser than the other! How can I fix it and will it settle in eventually? I’d hate to have my entire sweater have a horizontal stripe effect. I’ll take a few pictures later and post them if you think it’ll help you figure it out…

Thanks!

Dorothy in Omaha

#2

Yes, please post pictures. I’m not sure what you mean exactly.

#3

Some people do knit and purl at different enough tensions to create lines. You can try purling with a different sized needle and see if that makes a difference (or knitting with it if that will help).

#4

It’s called `rowing out’ I think, where there’s a noticeable difference between the knit and purl sts. It usually doesn’t happen when knitting in the round; for knitting flat, usually using different needle sizes helps even it out. It probably won’t be as noticeable after washing or drying.

#5

Yup, using a slightly smaller needle helped a lot. It’s still there a little, but it’ll hopefully even out after I block it. I’m using wool, so no drying here!

Thanks ladies!

#6

I meant washing or blocking, sorry. Good, glad that helped you out.