At a recent meeting of the Club knitting group, we had a conversation about a common issue that happens when our knits are tighter than our purls, or vice versa.
This issue is called “rowing out”.
Usually, we see it as a gap between every two rows. It affects many stitch patterns, but is most visible on the wrong side of a fabric made in stockinette stitch.
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This conversation reminded me of a method that I figured out a few years ago. This method helped me to get rid of rowing out in my knitting., and I use it to this day with great success.
I hope that this simple solution will help you as much as it helped me.
Here’s a detailed description of how this method works.
As I observed the way stitches are formed, I discovered that the angle of our knitting needles plays affects our knitting tension quite a bit.
Apparently, we form looser stitches when our needles are almost parallel to each other at the time when we wrap the tip of the right needle with the yarn.
And we work tighter when our needles form a right or even acute angle.
How can we use this information to fix rowing out? Well, we can balance the tension by loosening our tight stitches and tightening our loose ones. But first, we need to determine what stitches are looser.
In most cases, our purls are looser than our knits, but it is not wise to rely on general knowledge. Each of us is unique, and we all use different knitting styles and have different knitting habits.
To determine the reason for rowing out in YOUR knitting, make a medium-sized swatch worked in stockinette stitch. Try not to focus on making the fabric perfect. Work at your usual knitting rhythm.
Work 10 to 12 rows and stop after you finish a purl row. Do not turn your work to make sure the purl side of the fabric is facing you.
Inspect your swatch and find the rows that are longer than other rows. These rows will show in every other row of the fabric.
If a longer row is the first row below the needle, it means that your knit stitches are looser than your purls.
If a longer row is two rows down, your purls are looser than your knits.
Now that we know the reason for rowing out in our knitting, we can easily fix it by adjusting the position of our needles.
IF YOUR PURLS ARE LOOSER THAN YOUR KNITS
This is the issue that I used to have with my knitting tension. If you are like me and your purls are looser than your knits, then keep the needles almost parallel to each other as you knit a stitch.
And move the right needle so that it forms a right angle with the left needle when you purl a stitch.
IF YOUR KNITS ARE LOOSER THAN YOUR PURLS
If you determined that your knit stitches are looser than your purls, then keep the needles almost perpendicular to each other when you knit a stitch.
And hold them at an obtuse angle when you purl a stitch.
You can also use this approach to improve your overall knitting tension.
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If your knitting is too tight, hold the needles almost parallel to each other when you knit and purl your stitches. If your knitting is too loose, keep the needles at a right angle as you work on your projects.
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This and 31 other in-depth tutorials are part of Knitting Collection #8.
