4 June 2010

If you knit with a single-ply (also known as "singles") yarn, your work can easily become biased. By that I mean your knitted piece will either lean to the left \ or the right / depending on the twist or, which side you're looking at. It will might not be square.

This isn't usually a problem unless your yarn is tightly spun. Tightly spun singles tend to bias more than ones that are loosely spun. The problem with loosely spun yarns is that they tend to be more prone to pilling and loose shape easily. But, the singles yarns feel lusciously soft. Some of the nicest yarns being milled these days are single ply.

All of these problems can be easily overcome with your stitches. Using a stitch pattern that uses both knits a purls will usually solve the biasing problem. As far as the pilling and loosing shape, just drop down a needle size. Knitting the fabric just a touch tighter will give the yarn less room to move around and yield nicer shaping and reduce the pilling to almost nothing.

Simple solutions to vexing problems.