If you notice that every other row of your project is longer than its neighbors, that means your knits and purls have different tension.
It is a common issue called “rowing out”. It affects many stitch patterns, but is most visible on a fabric made in stockinette stitch.
There are a number of ways to fix rowing out – from using mismatched needles to changing to a different knitting style. Let’s talk about the easiest of those ways – the one that does not require any additional tools or any major effort on your part.
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As this issue happens because of the difference in tension between knit and purl stitches, this method includes two simple steps – first, we should determine what stitches are looser, and then adjust the tension of the yarn to tighten those stitches as we work them.
STEP 1
In most cases, our purls are looser than our knits, but it is not wise to rely on the 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, just use 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 away from the needle, your purls are looser than your knits.
Now that we know the reason for rowing out in our knitting, we can easily fix it.
STEP 2
The general idea is to tighten the yarn when we work the stitches that turn out looser in our knitting. We do it by wrapping the working yarn around the little finger before we are about to work those stitches, and by removing that wrap when we are about to work stitches that are not loose.
This method works equally well for all knitting styles.
If you prefer to hold yarn in your right hand, and your purls are looser than your knits (as determined in step 1), wrap the yarn around your right little finger before you work a purl row.
Remove this wrap when you are about to work a knit row.
If you usually hold yarn in your left hand and your purl stitches are looser than the knit stitches you make, wrap the working yarn around your left little finger before you work a purl row.
And don’t wrap it when you work a knit row.
Do the opposite if your knits are looser than your purls – wrap the yarn around your little finger when you are about to knit, and remove the wrap before purling.
HERE’S A VIDEO TUTORIAL THAT SHOWS EVERY STEP
Because rowing out is not as visible in textured stitch patterns like seed stitch or ribbing, there is no need to wrap and unwrap yarn before working each stitch of a project in a textured pattern.
But this method is a huge help when we want to eliminate rowing out in projects worked in stockinette stitch and in stitch patterns based on stockinette, like lace and basic cables.
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This and 36 other in-depth tutorials are part of Knitting Collection #7.
