I recently got hooked on finger knitting and haven’t really been able to put it down so I have had plenty of experiences on how to keep it taught and tightly knitted.
Finger knitting can become loose if the stitches and loops are given too much yarn, it can also happen when using yarn that if much thinner as it is harder to get a tighter finish on the loops. To fix this you can pull your yarn to tighten the knit after each row.
In this article, I am going to go through the different reasons why your finger knitting is loose and how to prevent it from happening.
Reasons Your Finger Knitting Loose
There are a number of reasons your finger knitting is loose and it is easy to amend during and after you have finished.
Finger knitting is supposed to be a fun and an enjoyable activity so it doesn’t matter if you experience this issue as you can continue on as you would or look at the reasons below.
Using Thin Yarn
One of the main reasons you may find your finger knitting is loose is due to the size yarn you are using.
This happens more frequently with thinner yarns as they are harder to pull tighter. As they are thinner there are larger gaps between spaces once your fingers have been removed.
The thinner the yarn the tighter you would need to pull the stitches together to keep it at a consistent size and to have less large gaps in your knitting.
Not Pulling The Yarn Taught
Another factor is you could be knitting but not keeping your yarn taught. It can be very hard to get the correct tension when finger knitting, especially for children as they need it to be loose enough to work with but not to tight that is cuts off ciruclation to the fingers.
The loose end which you are using to wrap around your fingers can often get dropped and is left loose, this is what can cause large gaps in your knitting and cause it to become loose and saggy.
Missing A Loop
Sometimes your finger knitting can become loose if you have missed a loop and it has become slightly unravelled. This can happen if you pulled the top loop off instead of the bottom.
Missing a loop can cause the knitting to unravel and not create the knot you should when making the correct loops.
Ways To Prevent Your Finger Knitting From Loosening
Once you know where you are going wrong you can prevent it and create beautiful finger knitted projects. There are a number of ways in which you can adjust your finger knitting to make it a tighter knit.
Use A Thicker Yarn
A great way of closing those gaps and preventing loose knitting is by using a thicker yarn. I love working with a chunkier yarn as it really gives a better feel, look and consisitency throughout the knit. It makes perfect ear warmers and headbands and even infinity scarves.
If you are buying yarn for children take them shopping to pick the size, this is especially important if you don’t know the sizes of yarn and what they are like.
Hold the yarn in your hands and work out if it is too thick or too thin. Children will require a thinner yarn as they have smaller hands but you can still create a lovely tight knitted item.
Pull The Yarn Taught
The best way to create taught finger knitting is by keep the yarn taught, not so tight that it causes your hand to turn blue but make sure you have control over the yarn while its been knitted.
If you let go and leave it loose you may find that the loops become bigger and more loose within each stitch.
Try and keep a firm hand on your loose end to keep your stitches tight and close together, use your other hand to keep hold of the yarn to keep control over the stitches and to encourage a nice tight knit.
You can also adjust your tension after each stitch to adjust your stitches closer together and close the gaps between them.
You can do this by pulling gently down on your knitting from the bottom, this will pull everything to sit tight and make the gaps more or less even on each stitch.
You can also adjust the loops as you go, once you have moved the bottom loop over the top and this can cause the loops to stretch or mis-shape. You can slightly tug on this to tighten the stitches as you go along.
When You Miss A Loop
When you miss a loop the best way to prevent it from happening is to take your time and keep looking over the guide again to familiarise yourself with the process.
You can also put a mark on your fingers with an arrow to remind you to take from the bottom loop and not the top.
If you have missed a loop the best way to fix this is to take out what you have knitted up until that point.
Then you can retrace your steps and start again from that point on. That way you won’t have a missed loop in the middle of your work and you can learn from where you went wrong.