Colorwork Tension Trouble: 3 Common Problems and How to Fix Them

Do you struggle with bubbles and puckers or uneven stranding with some colorwork projects? First of all, don’t judge the work until it is wet blocked; it might all come out in the wash. But what should you do if something is still amiss after it’s washed and dried?

The new issue of Farm & Fiber Knits has a great range of stranded motifs, ranging from a few rows of stranded stitches between color blocks to an intricately patterned cowl. The combination of different motifs, projects, and personal knitting styles means that the solution to colorwork-tension problems can be nuanced. Sometimes we need to take a closer look at our fabric to determine how to adjust.

Using the chart from Jen Geigley's Rustic Colorwork Hat in the new issue, I created a set of swatches with various tension issues and one with my “ideal” tension. If you are trying to fine-tune your colorwork knitting, here are some go-to tips for smoothing puckers, relaxing dense fabric, and fixing uneven stitches and strands!

Problem: Puckers.

Tip to Try: Spread the stitches out.

Left: Kate's ideal swatch. Right: The surface of the blocked fabric is wavy and undulates.

After blocking, the surface still does not lie flat.

As we knit, it usually doesn’t really matter how we manage the new stitches being loaded onto our right-hand needle.** Some of us pull them farther to the right after every stitch or two to allow space for more stitches. Alternatively, some knitters keep the stitches close to the right needle point, not pulling them farther along the right needle as frequently. This changes the distance between the newly formed stitches as they sit on the right needle. Most of the time, this doesn’t affect our gauge too much.

For colorwork knitting—also called stranded knitting—the spacing between the new stitches on the right needle can dramatically impact the length and even the consistency of the stranding on the back of the work. The length of the strand or “float” is determined by how spread out or scrunched up the stitches are on the right needle. So, by spacing our new stitches, we change the strands—easy!

Tip: Spread stitches on the right needle to create strands/floats that are the correct length. This applies when the working yarns are held both in the left or right hands as well.

The goal is to keep the stitches sitting on the right needle at about the same stitch-per-inch gauge you want for the finished fabric. I often keep my stranding just a touch looser to ensure an elastic fabric with a pucker-free finish.