Is your colorwork puckering and not laying flat? Even after a good block? Does you colorwork feel too tight, like it doesn't fit the size you intended to knit? 

The #1 question I get is "how can I fix my tension in colorwork?"

Think about when you're knitting stockinette. You can scrunch or stretch your stitches as much as you want while knitting them, and it's going to look pretty good. It's hard to mess up your tension in stockinette. 

For colorwork, the primary issue for tension comes from our floats, and more specifically, the length of our floats.

So here is my number one tip for you:

The most important thing is for your float to not be too loose or too tight - i.e. the length of yarn floating behind the stitches should not be significantly shorter OR longer than the width of those stitches. 

In other words, your float length should match the stitch gauge of the stitches it's floating behind.

If your knitting is too bunched up on the right needle, you might end up pulling your float too tight - and that's how you end up with puckered colorwork. 

If your stitches are too spread out on the right hand needle (ex. your cable is too long), the stitches on either side of that float will loosen up over time - which is how you end up with wobbly or holey-looking colorwork. 

The trick is to pay attention to first 1-2 inches of stitches on your right needle, especially when switching colors, so that the float is the right length to lay flat along the back of the work. If these stitches are sitting at the correct tension, your float will be the correct tension. 

Here's my sample at the correct tension:

So what exactly do you need to remember?

That you should aim to have your float length EXACTLY the length of the stitches it's floating behind AT GAUGE. 

If you do this one tip, you should find that you have much better tension in your colorwork!

Happy Doodling!

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Blog written by Jamie Lomax