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Tips on tensioning continental? (kbin.melroy.org)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/knitting

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I have no idea how to do this. Sometimes I pick up the yarn and it runs nicely, sometimes I end up with, say, 1 inch of length that just keeps getting shorter the more stitches I make and I must manually pull more from the ball instead of me just getting more yarn from the ball naturally with each stitch. ("1 inch" was just made up for this example, never actually measured it.) I have no idea what is affecting this. But the tension is awful and my practice piece looks like this. Please help me!

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

I knit continental. Usually I tend towards too much tension. Here's what I do to manage tension:

As others mentioned, only use your index finger to manage the tension on your stitch. I pass the yarn between my fingers to increase friction and hold it with the pinky. Then I can loosen my grip between stitches to pull more yarn. The tension on the stitch is managed by the index finger. If you feel the yarn is too slippy, you can wrap it around your pinky to further increase friction. I only tension the yarn with my index finger to the point that it doesn't have slack, maybe a little more. You don't have to pull it taught.
Where your stitches are on the needles when you stitch them also matters. The closer to the tip, the tighter they will be. I have to remind myself to leave enough yarn so I can pull the stitch off the needle from nearly 1cm back. It looks like a huge, sloppy stitch when pulling it off, but turns out fine afterwards.