Is Tension Important?

 

Tension is linked to the size and appearance of your finished knitted item: keeping all of your stitches the same tension will produce a neat, even fabric. If you are happy with the overall appearance of your knitting, then you probably do not need to worry about tension. However, tension is important if you are following a knitting pattern.

 

In a knitting pattern, working to the same tension as the designer will give size of the knitted fabric and the size of the finished item. If you don't have the same tension as the tension guide in the pattern, your knitted fabric will be a different size. For example, if the tension guide says 20 stitches = 10cm and your tension is 20 stitches = 15cm, your finished knitted fabric would be bigger than the designer's if you didn't make an adjustment. In this example, for every 20 stitches, your knitted fabric will be 5cm wider than the designer's. For an item like a garment, this would impact significantly on the overall size and this will affect your final results.

 

Tension also impacts on the amount of yarn required for the project. So working tighter or looser than the tension guide will use up a different quantity of yarn. Again, this is significant if you are following a pattern where the amount of yarn required has been calculated working to the designer's tension measurements

Therefore, tension is important and you are advised to knit a tension swatch to compare your tension to the tension guide and see that it matches.