Beth M

by Beth Miller
(Minneapolis, MN, USA)

I have trouble with the tension when pearling. If I knit in the round the tension is fine.

What can I do to make the pearl tension like the knit tension?

YOUR ANSWER

I'm afraid the only way to get your tension the same is to practice (a lot!)

Tension is controlled by the hand that is feeding the yarn into each stitch as you knit, and usually the hand movements are quite different between knit and purl rows. You can gauge your tension by how tight the stitches are on the right hand needle (assuming that you are right handed) after knitting them.

If you check how easily the stitches slip along the needle after completing a knit row, it will give you some idea of the tension you should be aiming for on a purl row.

If the stitches move more easily after a purl row you need to tighten up the yarn slightly as you are doing your purl stitches.

If the stitches are hard to slip along the needle you are controlling the yarn too tightly and need to loosen your grip a bit as you purl each stitch.

Other than that, as I said above you need to practice doing both knit and purl rows until your tension evens up - which it will do over time quite naturally as your knitting action becomes more automatic.

Hope this helps...