Thoughts on tension

As planned I went back to work on my grey and red mystery gift today. There were a few set backs but nothing too serious. The main problem was that I forgot which colour went on which finger. It was at least half and inch before I realized that I guessed wrong. I had heard/read that this made a difference but it took actually doing it to really appreciate how important it is.

I do colour work one handed with one yarn over my index finger and one over my middle finger. When I started this project I had the red over the index and the grey over the middle finger. When I restarted I did it the other way and discovered that the resulting fabric looked way more red. I couldn't figure out why there would be so much difference until I really looked at how I hold the yarns:


The yarn on the index finger gets a much higher tension than that on the middle finger so the stitches are smaller. I wished I'd realized this earlier because I would have made the red more prominent. I am three quarters done this project, though, and I'm not ribbing back. I will have to content myself with applying this knowledge to future projects. It makes me wonder whether I should try two handed colour work and see if I get a more even tension on both yarns.

***sorry for the blurry shot. It is hard to take a picture of your right hand if you're right handed and using a right handed camera.