I made the Give A Hoot mittens (link to .pdf pattern) last year – a pair for myself and a pair for the lovely AnnieB – and upon wearing them again recently I’ve discovered that my knitting tension clearly isn’t quite what it could be. See -
The mittens are designed in the Scandinavian style with a pointed top and are knitted in the round on double pointed needles. I admittedly find it difficult to avoid the ‘jog’ when moving between needles but have largely resolved this issue over the last few years of practicing with them, but these mittens have confounded me. I’m really not sure how I’ve ended up with such large gaps – it could admittedly be because these mittens are knit using aran weight yarn which is therefore going to highlight any minor error – but I’m thinking it’s more likely to have been my knitting technique, so I ask of all ye knitters out there. Do you have any suggestions of how to avoid this for next time?
Posted under knitting
This post was written by Vonnie on January 4, 2010
To be fair, it’s still better than I could do…
Because it has happened on both, it looks purposeful. You could line them with a contrasting fleece? Added cosiness!
If I’d knitted them I’d be overjoyed, I think they look great but I do agree with Lisa-Marie – line them with fleece that would rock. And then knit me a pair
The main thing is to make sure you pull the yarn tight when you move to the next needle. But you could still fix the problem – with a knitting needle, pull the loose stitch tighter, then pull the next stitch, then the next stitch so that you redistribute the extra yarn from the loose stitch. If you can’t follow that (I wouldn’t be surprised if yoy coudn’t!) e-mail me, and I’ll e-mail you a couple of photos to show what I mean. Love, Anne
I first started knitting in the round a couple of years ago, the first thing I tried was socks! I too had this problem and solved it by knitting 2 stiches from the next needle each time I swapped needles so the jog is never in the same place twice. Again, sounds more complicated than it is x
Like the fleece idea. I’m not a great knitter but I find stress really helps to keep your tension extra tight!
Yoink it really tight. Like, seriously yoink it on the first stitch on the new needle, and then pull tight again on the second. Doing this resolved my laddering problem, but I now I knit on DPNs with a reeeeally tight tension. Swings, roundabouts, ehhh.