How to Fix Loose Stitches and Gaps Beside Knitted Cables
A very common beginner problem: loose strands and gaps next to cables. Here's how to tighten them without unravelling, and a trick so they never form again.
Here's a very important tip, because beginners especially make this mistake. A subscriber sent me her cable knitting with slightly loose strands beside each cable. On the cord-collar cardigan I made, you can see there are no gaps next to the cables. She'd already knitted so much, so I'll show you how to fix it without unravelling, and then how to knit so the gaps never appear.
Why the gaps form
When you cross a cable, the cable stitches get pulled tight. The slack in the yarn has to go somewhere, and it ends up as a loose strand right next to the cable, usually on the left side, not the right.
Fixing it without unravelling
Work from the back of the fabric. The idea is to feed the extra yarn along the row, a little into each stitch, until it disappears.
- 1:
Find the stitch the loose strand belongs to. Every stitch has two legs, a right leg and a left leg.
- 2:
Pull the right leg of that stitch quite firmly, then its left leg a little more gently.
- 3:
Move to the next stitch in the same row and pull its legs with even less pressure.
- 4:
Keep going along the row, pulling more lightly each time. By the third or fourth stitch the slack is spread out and the row settles by itself.
- 5:
Do the same for each gap. You can also turn to the front and ease slack towards the non-cable side, where the stitches look straight and are easier to adjust.
Because the loose yarn moves into the tight cable stitches, the cables loosen up a little too and look more open and defined. It takes 5–10 minutes.
Preventing the gaps
- Knit the cable stitches firmly when you cross them. A cable needle helps reduce gaps even more.
- Purl the purl stitches right after the cable tightly too.
- The trick for right-side rows: after each cable, bring the yarn forward and slip the first purl stitch without working it, then purl the next stitch firmly. Do this after every cable, on crossing rows and plain rows alike.
- On the wrong-side rows: slip the first stitch and work every stitch as it appears until you reach the stitch you slipped. Lift that slipped stitch and pass it over the stitch you're working (I show the exact movement in the video, so watch it once). The stitch next to it, which should be knitted on this side, is simply knitted. Purl the rest of the row.
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