Ribbing and tension, pt 1 (2x2 and up)

The TKGA's Master Knitter program makes you do ribbing, both 1x1 and 2x2.  I don't do a whole lot of ribbing, and it has showed.  But tackling this issue actually helps in other areas that I *do* do more often:  cables, seed/moss stitch, and others.

This post does not concern the 1x1, which I've found needs to be worked a little more differently.  I'll address that in another post.  But it does work (for me - obviously, you may have different results!) for 2x2 and up.  Knit cables that are surrounded by purls, too.

Don't know what the issue is?  Pull out some needles and yarn.  Do a k2, p2 ribbing for a couple of inches.  Then look at your swatch.  Loose closely.  Do you see it?  Are your knit stitches all the same size?  If so, congratulations!  You don't need to worry about this aspect.  Or are the stitches on the left of each knit column (right before the purl column) bigger or looser than those on the right? 

The needle is pointing at the wonky column, also highlighted in pink; notice the neat looking green column.

Having trouble seeing it?  Take it a step further and do a k3, p3 swatch.  Then take a look at the left stitches in the knit column.  How do they compare to the two k stitches in the column?

3x3 ribbing, showing the wonky column

For some, the reason for this (and its correction) is simple:  many knitters work purls looser than knits.  This excess yarn is then best seen on the reverse side, as a loose knit stitch.  Pull the yarn tighter when you wrap your purl stitches and voila!  Neater ribbing.  For extreme cases, combination knitting (which I'll discuss below) can also help to make a tighter purl stitch.  I was first introduced to this idea by a Webs' Tuesday Tip. 

For others, the solution isn't so easy.  The problem lies in the *transition* between the knit and purl stitches - moving the yarn from behind the needle (knit position) to the front of the needle (purl position) adds a little bit of extra yarn, which then works its way into both of the stitches, though it's easier to see on the knit side.  This is where some more creative "combination" knitting comes in handy.

Combination knitting describes the use of both the "western" and "eastern" styles of knitting.  These are achieved by wrapping your yarn differently around your needles.  I won't get into the history of these styles - there are plenty of other places to explain it and I won't rehash it here.  But briefly, in western knitting, you wrap the yarn counter-clockwise around the needle (if you're looking down at its tip), and eastern, you wrap the yarn clockwise.  In addition to changing the amount of yarn you use for a stitch, the different styles will change the orientation of the stitch on your needle.  In your next row, you'll work western-style stitches through the front leg on the needle; eastern-style stitches are worked through the back leg. Make sure you're working your stitches the correct way, or else you'll end up with twisted stitches.

Just about everywhere I looked for a solution to the ribbing problem had the same solution:  work all of the purls eastern and all of the knits western.  I tried this.  I tried it, plus tugging with everything I had.  I tried Portuguese knitting.  I tried continental knitting (yep, I've always been a thrower).  I tried Norwegian purls.  I went down a size, killed my carpal tunnel syndrome, and knit some great Kevlar-esque swatches.  I tried working everything eastern.  Still no good.  

I started looking at the stitches and, more importantly, their transitions.  Why do I not have the same problem with the p-k transition?  I pulled the ribbing out tight and started to notice that the k-p transition, even with the fixes, was still very loose, with a loop between the two stitches, but the p-k was very tight; that "loop", while there, wasn't loopy.  It was about as tight as you can get.

This shows the difference between the transitions.  The p-k transition in green is actually tucked very neatly behind the right leg of the first k stitch.  Compare to the k-p transition in pink.  Yuck!

Here, I have stretched the p-k transition as much as I can to show the tight "frowns" right before the k stitch.  This is the transition we want to replicate on the other side.  Pardon the lack of a manicure.

Many, many swatches later, with the help of Sara from Let me ExplaiKnit, I've learned something about the length of the transitions.  In a western-worked k-p, the yarn comes out the back of the k, around the left leg of the k, under the needle, then over the needle and back to the front.  That's a lot of extra yarn.  So I've assigned this a "long" description for the transition.

Kw Pw

If you work the k western and the p eastern, this distance is shortened:  out the back, around the left leg, under the needle, then over the needle, but it doesn't really go back to the front.  I've assigned this a "medium" description.

Kw Pe

If you work the k eastern and the p western, the yarn starts more forward when it comes out of the k, then goes under and over the needle back to the front.  This one is also a "medium" in my head.

Ke Pw

Finally, if you work both the k and the p eastern, the yarn takes the shortest possible trip around the needles:  front-ish coming out of the k, under and over the needle, no return trip to the absolute front.  So this one is "short."

Ke Pe

Using the same method on the p-k transition, working both western results in a "short" transition, one st eastern and the other western are both "medium", and both worked eastern give a "long" transition.

To make the ribbing look nice and neat and pretty, the transitions on both sides of the column need to match.  I tend to focus more on the purl column, but you can think about and apply it to the knit column as well.  Because we want ribbing to pull in, the shortest transitions are going to achieve the best results.  In the k-p transition, both stitches should be worked eastern, and the p-k should be worked western.  It doesn't matter how many stitches you have in between.

Stretched, you can see that the transitions match

The nice, neat, tucked 2x2 ribbing

Try it.  See if it helps.

One last note:  in a 2x2 rib, the suggestion to work all purls eastern and all knits western isn't without merit.  As detailed above, this will result in each side having a "medium" length transition.  But for ribbing, you want that transition to be tight, or else it won't pull in as much as ribbing should.

Next time, I'll dive into 1x1 ribbing, moss, and seed stitch.