Natural Knitting Tension

by Joanne
(Connecticut)

Hi, this is Joanne again about my uneven tension.

I am trying to knit a feather and fan pattern. It goes like this:

Slip 1 st as to purl, slip 1 knit 3tog psso, yo,k1 5 times, then slip 3 stitches knit together then pass the unworked stitch on left needle over the 3 knit stitches then p2.then go back to sl 1 knit 3tog psso, etc.

2nd row purl

3rd row knit

4th row purl.

I am having a real hard time with the 4th purl row. The knit stitches below are much smaller than the purl. I have been knitting for a while now and years ago the first thing I ever made was straight, really pretty good. I started again and cannot seem to get my purls as tight.

Sometimes I can. I was told my a master knitter that I was out of luck that this was my natural tension (kind of depressing). I wonder if it is because I am too tense when I purl because I feel that it will not come out right.

The rest of the blanket (baby blanket that is) really looks nice the decreases and all that are pretty good. It seems to be the purls.

Is this true about natural tension?

I have tried purling on a smaller needle and the purl stitches are even worse. I am using dDebbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino on a size 5 rosewood circular needle.

Sorry this is so long. Thank you so much for any advice.

YOUR ANSWER

Hi Joanne,

I have never heard anyone say this about 'natural tension' but then I do not claim to be a 'Master Knitter' either, so it is possible. But even if it is your natural tension is it still a learned behavior and can be changed!

Changing it is not going to be easy though. So you should expect that it is going to take some time and a lot of knitting to overcome this problem - practice makes perfect!

I think it is probably due to tension you are feeling. You are obvious worried about the tension on your purl rows and that level of anxiety will not be helping!

As you say you are having trouble with the 4th row only, I was wondering what is different when you are knitting the second row (also purl). Add I think it might be because the knit row before the 2nd and 4th rows are different. The 1st row is a pattern row where as the 3rd row is plain knit, as you are doing the lace pattern on the 1st row your tension is probably different (looser) than when you are knitting a plain 'knit row'.

I still thing the problem is the knit row rather than the purl. Rather than trying to tighten the purl row, try loosing the tension on the 3rd (knit) row and see how that works.

Give it a go and let me know what happens...