If you have tension problems in your knitting there is one sure-fire solution: keep knitting. It works with problems in crochet tension too. Also handspinning. Practice really does make perfect. So if you find yourself with tension issues you can accept them, look to find joy in the making of things, and know that after 10,000 yards or so of yarn have passed through your hands those tension issues will be gone. And you can skip the rest of this post and go have a great day!

But I know that approach doesn’t work for everyone. I teach knitting and crochet on the side to help support my yarn buying addiction. I have people who come and pay me some of their hard earned cash to help them and they don’t want to hear “Oh just take pride in your mistakes and keep going!” They want, you know, actual help.

So over the years I have been forced to teach lessons in correcting tension issues in knitting. But I just want to say, for the sake of honesty, that I didn’t do any of these things to become a better knitter. I just bought more yarn and kept on making bumpy, messy knitting until it (slowly) became less bumpy and less messy. To each their own.

So You Have Tension Issues in Your Knitting And You Want Them Gone

Then I have a somewhat ramble-ly video for you. It had to be ramble-ly. Sorry. There is more than one cause of uneven, inconsistent tension and I wanted to cover them all. Some areas to self-check include:

• your tension when you knit versus when you purl
• how you hold the working yarn
• where you work on the needles
• what angle you hold those needles

Hope that helped. And if your specific issue is knit tension versus purl tension that I have a cheat you might like to try: use a different size needle when you work the wrong side/mostly purl side. If your purls are too loose (which is pretty common) then use a smaller needle to purl. Ta da! Problem fixed.