Before you cast on your cardigan (a quick tip)

While knitting the Mellow Mood Cardigan (coming in just about a week, I’ll send you a coupon ♥️), I ran into something worth sharing before you cast on your next cardigan.

If you’re anything like me and knit mostly in the round, you probably don’t even think about tension anymore. Your stitches line up beautifully, and everything looks even.

But the moment you switch to flat knitting — alternating knit and purl rows — things can suddenly look different.
You might notice faint horizontal lines, or every other row looking just a bit looser or wider.

That texture difference has a name: rowing-out. And it happens more often than you think.

What is rowing-out?

Rowing-out is the uneven texture you sometimes see in stockinette when one row of stitches has a different tension than the next.

Usually, the knit stitches on the right side are tighter, while the purl stitches on the wrong side are looser.
The result: every other row “pops” slightly, creating visible ridges across your fabric. 😬

 

Why it happens

When you knit in the round, every stitch is a knit stitch. The motion stays the same, the tension stays steady, and the fabric looks consistent.

When you knit flat, things change. You alternate between knit and purl rows, and that switch affects how your hands move and how the yarn wraps around the needle.

Most knitters naturally purl a little looser than they knit. Simply because of how the purl stitch is formed.
Some have the opposite problem.
Even experienced knitters can notice rowing-out when they’re tired, distracted, or simply knitting a bit too fast (🙋🏻guilty).

It’s not a mistake — it’s just how our hands behave.

How to fix or prevent it

First of all, don’t worry. You’re not doing anything wrong. This is simply part of how knitting works. Rowing-out is common, and with a bit of awareness, it can usually be improved or even eliminated.

The goal is not perfection, but learning to control your tension.

Here’s what helps:

• Knit flat more often. Over time, your hands will learn to balance the tension between knit and purl rows.
• Watch your purl tension. Keep the yarn snug and let the needle “measure” each stitch before you slide it off.
• Choose darker shades or fluffy yarns if you want to make small imperfections less visible.

 

🎥 I’ve found 2 wonderful videos that show this in action. Both are by talented knitters who inspired this Esenote:

1. If you’d like to dive deeper into this topic, watch “Uneven Rows in Your Knitting? Here’s What’s Going On” by Wool Needles Hands. Tayler explains what rowing-out is, why it happens, and how to fix it with simple awareness and small adjustments.

2. If you’d like to see rowing-out explained in action, watch “Improve Your Knitting Tension With These Small Changes! (No More Rowing Out!)” by Clo Knits.
Clo compares flat and in-the-round swatches and shares practical ways to even out tension, from stitch positioning to using a smaller needle on purl rows.

I usually knit in the evening — one eye on the movie I’m watching with Alex, the other on my project 😄. And since I knit fast, rowing-out tends to find me. I used to switch to a smaller needle size for the purl rows, but for some reason, it didn’t help. My knit rows just ended up looking looser instead.

Next time I knit back and forth, I’ll slow down and really watch those purl rows. That same awareness helped me when I struggled with uneven tension while knitting in the round a few years ago.


❤️ I hope this Esenote was useful and inspiring.

Warm regards,

Julia Piro

Knitwear Designer & Esenotes Curator

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