For the past few days I’ve been pondering a knitting problem. The problem is my uneven ribbing. When I knit in the round, my ribbing looks decent, as shown by this shot of my fad classic vest’s ribbing (which I’m wearing today – yay!)
Not totally perfect, but good enough. The problem comes when I knit ribbing flat. This problem was one of several things which totally doomed my Britannia sweater to the frog pile. Here’s a pic of the A-line tank, which is going really quickly in the worsted yarn.
I was unhappy with the ribbing up to the bodice details, so I looked online for a solution. I decided to try a method I found on the Nona knits blog, of wrapping the first purl after a knit stitch the opposite way, then knitting TBL on the following row. Sort of like combined knitting, only not every stitch. There are lots of knitbloggers who seem to swear by this method. Here are my results:
Ignore the sad snagged bit of nylon up there please – I am! I switched where the big ribbing section begins. And while it is somewhat better than my usual ribbing, I’m still not thrilled with it. Does anyone have another suggestion? I know this will block out quite a bit, but still… I am displeased, and I am now at a loss for what else to do.
Green apples - Stitchywitch Creates 
Re: ribbing. I actually have the same problem. I’ve heard that some people use a needle one or two sizes smaller when purling — but if you’re working a rib stitch, that would be really time consuming!
I find that I just have to slow down a bit and really concentrate on my tension when knitting a rib pattern flat. Since I know my purl tension tends to be loose, I just tug my working harder.
Good luck! Can’t wait to see the FO 🙂
I have always found that it is the elastic nature of ribbing to pull in…… I guess I have always assumed that it was what it was supposed to do, so I have never questioned it. Won’t it still work the same, and fit the body just as well?
I realize that it may look a bit odd…… but, well…heck, it is your sweater, YOU have to like it!
Sadly I have no solution. Nice colour choice!
I don’t know whether you knit English or Continental, but I find ribbing comes out much more evenly in Continental (and it’s faster, because you never let go of the yarn). I know people have strong feelings about which method to use, but I love all knitting and will happily learn a new technique to see how it works. If you haven’t tried Continental, you might give it shot.
I had the same problem with ribbing until I started doing a ptbl instead of a regular purl. It really made the ribbing a lot tidier.
It’s fun seeing your progress on the a-line tank! I don’t have any advice except to confirm as you said, that a lot will flatten out in blocking – mine did.
You are making some great progress on that tank. I am having the same problem with knitting ribbing flat. I knit Continental and I knit very tightly, but when knitting ribbing flat my stitches are really uneven. I am knitting the Boatneck Tank on the same page as your A-line tank. It is going really fast so far.
I forgot to add, I love your idea about highlighting older patterns on here. That would be really cool.