TENSION PROBLEMS
Tension problems occur when your knitting stitches are uneven - some stitches are too tight or too loose. Tension problems can be affected by the yarn used, the needles used, the pattern used, your emotional state and probably even the phase of the moon. I seriously doubt there is a knitter alive who hasn't experienced this occasionally. If you always knit the same sort of project with the same yarns and needles you may rarely notice it. Adventurous knitters who try different fibers and needles and stitch and color patterns will notice this more often.
Fortunately many tension problems can be blocked out, especially if you knit with a nice elastic wool. But if your knitting often looks like something the cat chewed on, you may want to develop some ways to deal with this phenomenon when you notice it. Paying attention to your knitting and learning how to knit more loosely or more tightly in certain situations can go a long way.
The first thing I do when I notice tension problems in a knitting project is to change needles - not the size but the type. You'd be surprised at how often this helps. Sometimes I think a specific combination of yarn and needle type can cause tension problems.
COLORWORK Often the first time a knitter notices tension problems is when he/she starts learning to knit with more than one color. I'm convinced this is one of the biggest reasons new knitters shy away from color knitting. I admit that learning to strand evenly while knitting with more than one color can be a learning process. Often knitters carry the yarn not in use too tightly and the work ends up puckering. If this is happening to you, try stretching out the stitches on the left-hand needle before knitting with the yarn you've been carrying along. Some times weaving the yarn in on the back of the work will help and some times it will make tension problems worse if you're doing some sort of picture knitting.
RIBBING The easiest way to tell if an item is machine knit is by examining the ribbing. Hand knitters just can't achieve the same level of evenness in ribbing that a machine can. Most knitters purl more loosely than they knit. One article I read said that tension problems in ribbing are because the knitter doesn't pull the yarn in front fully before purling.
PURL STITCHES NEXT TO CABLES If you look at Vogue Knitting or the Harmony stitch guides you can often see examples of loose purl stitches next to cables. Try tightening the second purl stitch on either side of the cable. Tightening the second stitch works better for me than tightening the purl stitch immediately following or preceding a cable. Some people also try purling the stitch next to the cable through the back loop (and correcting it/untwisting it on the next row).
DPNS & LADDERS Ladders are the vertical column of loose stitches that can occur at the beginning of each needle when you are using dpns. I can generally avoid ladders by using 5 dpns instead of 4 - I think this balances out the knitting. If you have tried the usual remedy of knitting the second stitch of a new needle more tightly without results you can simply move the needle joins over several stitches every few rows. At least this way you won't have long columns of uneven stitches - they'll be more randomly placed.
Some knitters also get some relief from ladders by changing the way they knit the first stitch on each dpn. Instead of knitting with the left hand needle above the right hand needle, try knitting with the left hand needle below the right hand needle.
I am working on Helgi's Mittens from Folk Knitting in Estonia that has a color pattern of squares and the needle change occurs right at the square change in the pattern. This made the ladders more noticeable. Switching back to only 4 dpns solved the problem and the ladders were less noticeable.
If you still can't solve your ladder problem with dpns then switch to two circulars.
GLOVE FINGERS I recently noticed that whenever I worked glove fingers in several colors I had a ridge at each needle join. It wasn't loose stitches which caused ladders - it was too tight stitches. I realized that when I'm knitting glove fingers with two colors that I'm constantly worried the dpn will drop so I pull too tightly with the unused color when I change needles. This is a simple problem that can be solved just by realizing what you're doing and not doing it anymore.
I am finishing up some wonderful socks but they're not quite ready to be scanned so here's another photo of Peaches instead.
