Knitting filter: how to make stockinette stitch tighter

April 17, 2020 8:43 AM

I seem to remember a technique that involved doing the WS purls differently and then the RS knits differently to put the yarn back in the correct orientation, and this resulted in purls with less fabric, thereby making the finished fabric tighter. But I can't find this online for the life of me.

I feel like it was explained in a tutorial by someone like Andrea Rangel, but I can't find it on her website. But I could be remembering incorrectly. Thank you for your help! As you can imagine, searching 'tight stockinette stitch' results in people talking about how their fabric has tension problems.

posted by baptismal to Media & Arts (7 answers total)

When you do the purl side, use a smaller needle to pick up the stitches? I'm right handed so when I turn to do the purl stitches, I switch to a smaller needle, one to two sizes smaller for my right hand.
posted by tipsyBumblebee at 8:48 AM on April 17, 2020

Not sure if this helps, but I think I've read that "knitting backwards" on the RS rather than turning and purling on the WS results in tighter tension.
posted by Mauve at 8:49 AM on April 17, 2020

Hm, I saw a youtube thing on "combination knitting" where you pull the yarn under your purls instead of over and I think in effect it was reversing the loops and made the fabric tighter. Might that be it?
posted by less of course at 8:50 AM on April 17, 2020 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Was it this: tighter purls, by Ysolda Teague?
posted by zeptoweasel at 8:50 AM on April 17, 2020 [1 favorite]

I have had some luck tightening up my purls by switching to Norwegian purling - I can't remember which tutorial I learned on but there are a bunch on Youtube. It keeps the yarn on the backside so it's very handy for ribbing and other alternating stitch patterns.
posted by phlox at 8:54 AM on April 17, 2020

Response by poster: These are all great answers! zeptoweasel, yes, that's where I saw this!
posted by baptismal at 8:55 AM on April 17, 2020

For further research, this is called “rowing out,” which might make googling potential fixes easier.
posted by mollymayhem at 3:39 PM on April 17, 2020