Hi, i am new here! I am knitting a blanket with cables and I seem to have a looser stitch at the end of the knit sections before the purl. Have tried tighter and looser knit before the purl with the same effect. Will blocking work this out? See photo. What am I doing wrong?
1 Like
Hello, welcome to the forum.
This is a common problem at a knit purl transition and there are likely various tips for reducing the problem. The rest of your knitting looks lovely.
My tip is not to work the knit stitch any differently, not tight not loose. Make the purl as normal, not tignt not loose but then instead of continuing on to the next purl take the yarn to the back and give it a tug to the right (behind the working needle), return the yarn to the front and continue on with the purls as normal. This should reduce the slack at least some.
You can try it for several rows on this piece and see if you see an improvement. If it is not improvement enough try a tighter second purl and see how that goes.
The extra slack in your knit column can be redistributed into the purls to reduce the problem, the easiest way i find is to turn the piece to the wrong side, so looking at a large purl now and draw the yarn stitch by stitch into the knit stitches in that panel (these are purl on the right side). You can get rid of a good amount of extra yarn this way and make the piece look smarter. You’ll need to do it for each row which is a bit of a faff but worth it. (You can do it with right side facing i just find it easier moving yarn into knits rather than purls).
Other members probably have some other tips too.
Let us know how you get on.
Many knitters face this same problem between knits and purls. I also subscribe to the slight snug up that Creations is recommending.
Here’s a video which also indicates how widespread the problem is.
https://verypink.com/2016/11/30/good-tension-knit-purl-stitches/
1 Like
Thank you both so much, that is the ticket! Wish I had asked this question about 20 rows sooner! I am not quite sure I understand Creation’s repair remedy for the rows already knit but I will play around a bit and see if I can move some of the loose wool into its neighbour stitch,
Thank you!
2 Likes
Glad it’s helped.
I didn’t link a video earlier as i wasn’t sure if you already knew how to redistribute the yarn slack. Here is an extreme version where the yarn has been pulled into a big loop, yours is not nearly so extreme, the idea is the same though and this method can be used to even up a stitch here and there in any knitting, or for pulls, or even an accidental loop or yarn over. It is surprising just how much the yarn can be redistributed to even up a row or column.
In your case it is a whole column of knits which wants tightening so draw the yarn into the purl panel next to it, on every row, you can draw it into 1 or more stitches in that panel to get a much more even look. (And i also suggest turning the fabric over to the wrong side so that you draw excess yarn into knits rather than purls just because the legs are easier to see and follow the direction of travel)
See how you go and if it still isn’t clear let us know
1 Like
It’s never too late to improve the tension. Redistributing and snugging up will help and indeed some of the loose sts will even out a bit with blocking.
Looks like the beginning of a beautiful blanket with lovely knitting.
Welcome to KnittingHelp!
Thank you both, it is slowly looking more even. It is indeed a faff, but thank you for helping me correct it going forward!
2 Likes