How to Fix Rowing Out in Knitting
You're knitting stockinette and when you look at the fabric, you can see horizontal lines — alternating rows that are slightly looser and slightly tighter, creating a subtle striped or ribbed-looking texture that shouldn't be there. This is rowing out, and it's one of the most common and most frustrating tension problems in flat knitting.
What Rowing Out Actually Is
Rowing out is the visible effect of knit rows and purl rows having different tension. In most knitters' hands, purl stitches are worked slightly looser than knit stitches — the mechanics of the purl motion create more yarn slack than the knit motion. When these two row types alternate (as they do in flat stockinette), you get alternating tight rows and loose rows, and the fabric shows it as a horizontal texture pattern.
The frustrating thing is that rowing out usually only becomes visible once you're several inches into a project. It can be subtle enough to miss on the needle but obvious when the fabric is laid flat or blocked.
How to Diagnose It
Hold your stockinette fabric up against a light source and look at it from a slight angle. If you see horizontal lines where the knit rows and purl rows are clearly distinguishable (not just from the stitch structure but from a size difference), that's rowing out. You can also run your thumbnail across the surface — you'll feel a slight ridge on the looser rows.
The quick confirmation test: count the visible ridges. If every other row is creating a ridge, you have rowing out. If the ridges are irregular, you have general tension inconsistency (a different problem).
How to Fix It
Adjust your purl technique
The goal is to tighten your purl rows to match your knit rows. After completing each purl stitch, pull the working yarn snug — more deliberately than you would for a knit stitch. It feels counterintuitive at first, but with practice it becomes automatic. Some knitters find that wrapping the yarn an extra time around the index finger creates enough drag to even out the tension naturally.
Try Portuguese knitting for purl rows
Portuguese knitting (also called Andean or Turkish knitting) routes the yarn around the back of your neck or through a pin on your shirt, dramatically changing how the purl stitch is formed. In Portuguese style, purling is actually the easier motion, and many knitters find their purl tension tightens significantly. You don't have to adopt the full Portuguese method — you can switch to it just for purl rows and knit the knit rows your usual way.
Use a smaller needle on purl rows
A practical mechanical fix: use a needle one size smaller for purl rows only. It's slightly cumbersome but effective. Some knitters who flit between two needle sizes keep both on the work simultaneously, switching to the smaller needle at the start of every purl row. Not elegant, but it works.
Knit everything in the round
If your project allows it, working in the round eliminates purl rows entirely — you knit every round to create stockinette. No purl rows means no purl tension differential, which means no rowing out. For projects designed to be worked flat, you can try working them flat on circular needles and always pushing stitches to the right tip to avoid turning, working a false round, but this is complex and not always practical.
Choose a yarn that hides rowing out
Textured yarns — tweeds, heathers, yarns with colour variation — make rowing out essentially invisible. Solid-coloured smooth yarns (especially high-contrast colours like white, black, and bright red) show every tension difference. If rowing out has been a persistent problem for you, choosing yarn with some texture buys you significant forgiveness.
Tips to Prevent Rowing Out
- Always swatch for rowing out on your project yarn before committing — 20 rows of stockinette laid flat will show you whether it's a problem.
- Work on purl technique as a deliberate practice exercise: 20 rows of purling with focus on matching your knit tension.
- For important projects in smooth solid yarn, work in the round whenever construction allows.
- Block your swatch the same way you'll block the finished piece — blocking can slightly reduce but won't eliminate rowing out.
Rowing out gets better with technique work, but it takes consistent practice. If you're mid-project and debating whether to rip back and try a different approach, share where you are and we can help you decide.