My name is Mister Tiffin and I am a male knitter.
More accurately, I am an aspiring male knitter.
I started knitting at the end of February and I am very fortunate to have excellent (and very patient) teacher (S.). So far I’ve learnt two stitches, two cast-ons and…(tries to remember the right name)…twisted cables.
I could give you some more background and context but, as I'm a fan of in media res, that will have to wait until a little later...
Having completed Project No.1 (a knit hat) and Project No.2 (a knit and purl hat) it was suggested that I try my hand at something a little more complex. One of my friends suggested socks, but I fear any attempt at those was destined to meet defeet (yeah, I went there). S. stepped in and suggested that my next project should be something that expanded upon both my skills and scale.
So began Project No. 3; my first jumper. K. pointed me in the direction of a very nice pattern (edan jumper from Rowan’s ‘Pure Wool Collection’) and I was ready to go.
I picked up new needles (US 3) and wool and sat down to start knitting. After casting on roughly a hundred stitches, M. helpfully pointed out that I might want to do a swatch first. I raised an interrogative eyebrow and she replied by pointing to the prominent section at the start of the pattern which told me to knit a sample 10cm square.
Lesson #975 'Read the pattern'.
So, I started on doing a swatch of 22 stitches by 30 rows. So far so good...except that I was still using the needles indicated for the main pattern. The needles for the square should be US 6.
Lesson #975a 'Actually read the pattern!'
Properly briefed (boxered?) I restarted the square. Unfortunately, this has proven to be a rather traumatic challenge. Whilst I can knit with very even tension, it is also quite tight. Apparently this is quite a common problem amongst beginners. This hasn't proven an issue on the smaller projects but I was informed by learned minds that it will have a serious bearing on larger projects.
However, it seems that I only have two tensions in my repertoire. Dramatic and...no, hang on...sorry. Two tensions; tight and looser than a 1930s Horne comedy.
Hence, project 3.a 'learning to vary my tension'. I sense this will be a little frustrating, but I've got time and very supportive (and amused) knitting colleagues so fingers-crossed.
been reading up on adjusting tension in your knitting...all the resources talk quite a bit about adjusting needle size but not yarn tightness! after all, that's what the different size needles are for, and i think even the most talented knitter couldn't consistently fine-tune their tightness throughout an entire project. one tension, many needles.
ReplyDeleteif you're knitting too tightly, most likely you're either (a) holding the yarn too light with your right hand or (b) subconsciously tightening your stitch after you pull it off the left needle. the most useful skill regarding tension that i developed was holding the yarn wrapped around my ring finger on my right hand - i've seen lots of different ways to hold the yarn, and whatever works for you works for you, but feeling like i could *maintain* one consistent tension across a row, adjusting slowly as the yarn ran through my fingers, was very satisfying.