Yarn over fabric getting looser and looser

Hello! New here, and beginner knitter. I’m working on the Korshavn Cardigan, and it’s my second project ever so not an experienced knitter. I’m having a few issues I hope you can help with.

The cardigan follows a repeated basketweave pattern, with SSK/YO and YO/K2K at the corner of each square of the basket to create a nice lace-y effect. It was all going well in the first few basket row repeats, but as the cardigan gains length, the fabric is getting looser and looser. The stitches above each YO are getting wider and wider and I’m worried it may get worst as I get to the end of the back panel. I haven’t changed my tension, but stitches are way looser now than they were at the beginning.
I tried to purl the YO from the back loop to tighten it, but when I do so it actually disappears, and leaves a simple increase rather than a hole so it modifies the look of the fabric.
Are there any techniques I could use to tighten up the fabric a bit? I think I tried also to knit and purl from the back loops between the squares of the basket (so when I move from K to P I purl from the back the first purl stitch, and when I move from P to K I knit the first stitch from the back), but it seemed to change the look of the basketwave so not sure I was doing it right. Any help appreciated!

Also, side note. I did my swatch at the start, and couldn’t get the right gauge with the recommended needle size (5mm), so I used 6mm as I had too many stitches. My gauge was still too tight even on 6mm, and I was surprised as I don’t think I am such a tight knitter… But after wetting the swatch, the stitches relaxed and I got gauge so I went for the 6mm. I’m now worried that gauge will be off, as the project progresses. The swatch was a small square, so there wasn’t any weight to pull the YO. But on the finished cardigan there’s weight pulling the fabric, which I think may change gauge a bit… Wondering, would the pattern designer take that into account when they recommend a gauge?

Thanks

Welcome to the forum!
There are ways to adjust the size of the yarn over. This video addresses adjusting the yarn overs between different knits or purls to even them out but it’s also applicable to yarn overs that are larger than you would like.

What yarn are you using for this sweater? That may contribute to the weight of the finished back.
There are also ways of tightening up the transition from knits to purls and vice versa.

The weight of the back may certainly affect the gauge, especially the length or row gauge. The pattern designer should take that into account using her recommended yarn. It sounds like you worked the swatch in the basketweave pattern as recommended and that was a good thing to do. Can you measure the gauge again on the part of the back that you’ve knit(even thought not washed and dried). You can measure over a good 4 inches or more at this point.

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Hello
The gauge is on the 5mm for the basket weave part of this fabric. The 4mm you tried first is only for the rib. I’m just looking at in on ravelry. So this means you were not out on your gauge swatch and have met gauge, after washing on the correct size needle. I know that would make me feel more confident about a pattern as I always worry about sizes

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Sorry my bad! I used 5mm for ribbing, and 6mm for the basket weave. So yeah, I went up a size from the pattern. I’m using the recommended yarn, so I was quite surprised my gauge was so off. I had something like 24 stitches per 4" with the recommended needle size instead of 18. On the current needles I had 21 stitches, but after wetting I got gauge so 18 per 4".

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Thank you this is really helpful! I had seen the first video, but it doesn’t really apply to my case as my YO are between two knits, so in theory they should be consistently the same size. Which they were up to the 6th basket row, but then the whole thing started to stretch exponentially at each basket row.
The second video is actually really good and I think it nails it. I tried that trick on part of my row and it really seems to make a difference! I’ve now unravelled an inch and will knit again with this technique, let’s see how it improves it :slight_smile:

I’m using exactly the same yarn as the pattern recommends, which is making me quite nervous as in theory I should have got similar gauge. But I was getting 5 stitches less on the recommended needle size, so I went a size up. Now I’m worried that the recommended needle size may have made more sense, considering how much the fabric is stretching as length grows… Hopefully the trick above will help.

It does seem a little strange to have to go up a full mm size to reach the gauge, I know we all knit differently but if you don’t usually have to change by that much then it is quite unusual.
Is it possible that rather than going up the needle size you only needed to wet and block to allow it to stretch, I realise you did this and got this with 6mm to get the 18 sts, I’m wondering if the 5mm would have stretched out to then18 had you wet it?
I wonder if it’s worth doing another swatch on 5mm in pattern and washing and blocking it out to the measurement to see how the fabric looks?
I have seen one of the experienced online knitters (sorry the name escapes me) demonstrate how she makes her swatch, blocks, then carries it around in her pocket for week playing with it every now and then. It gives a kind of worn measurement. I’ve done similar with swatches and treated them quite badly to see what happens with wear and pulling at them to give an idea of what happens with fabric weight ou,king on it and the strains of betting items on, off and laundered. The size of mine changed enough for me to work with the “worn” measurement rather than the original measurement.

I hope your project goes well whatever you decide to try from this point.

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Thank you! Yeah, I didn’t wet my swatch on 5mm because I was so off, so not sure how it would have changed. May be worth testing out.
I don’t have enough knitting experience to say whether my knitting is ‘usually’ tight or loose… I knitted a simple jumper before and had to go up a needle size then too, although I used a different yarn than recommended in that case.
So much to figure out! I’ll just have to make more stuff and learn the hard way, I suppose :sweat_smile:

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We’re all learning.
At one point I thought my best way forward would be to use the same yarn and same needles for every project just so I’d know what size it would come out! Ha! It would be a boring life if I limited my knitting so much wouldn’t it?
Many people don’t like to swatch at all and for some projects it seems okay to wing it, for others it seems important to swatch well. Swatches can seem a bit boring but many of mine I have learned a lot doing, using them to practice stitches on, try out a different increase or decrease or a different bind off but in the same yarn of my project to see how it looks. My swatches this week are so big I’ve almost made half a sweater!

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The size needle recommended in pattern is likely the needle that the designer used. You may be a tighter knitter than the sweater designer. I routinely go down a needle size and sometimes even two needle sizes for patterns.
You’ll get a better feeling for the kind of knitter you are as you work more patterns from different designers. Don’t be afraid to change needle size or needle composition (metal, plastic, bamboo) in order to get gauge.
It looks like you’ve picked a beautiful pattern for your second project!

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I find that sometimes the tension changes as I knit a piece, even though I am still using the same needles and (as far as I can tell) am knitting it the same way from one day to the next.

Obviously something is happening, but I’m often not able to work out what it is :slight_smile: I think we unconsciously knit tighter or looser. I just finished a pair of socks and one turned out longer and wider than the other one in the foot because I was knitting more loosely that day.

I sometimes wonder if ribbing has an influence on the body rows just above it, and, when I get to a bit further on in the body, that influence wanes.

And an actual boo boo that I have made is accidentally switching needles. (Unlikely with circular needles, but can be done with straight ones pretty easily.)

It might be helpful to knit another swatch, a reasonably large one, with ribbing as well as the basket stitch, and block it.

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I just wanted to say I tried the super simple trick in the second video you posted and it fixed the problem! The issue was the different tension between the knit section and the purl section, and simply moving the working yarn in between those sections made the magic. Thank you so much :slight_smile:

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Ribbing definitely makes a difference! And yes, my tension also changes. The previous jumper I knit had a sleeve smaller than the other although stitch count and needle size was identical. I realised it when I got to stitch them to the body and things were not quite working out! I guess this is what blocking is for, I learnt :wink:

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