A couple questions from a newbie!

[pebbles77]

Hi everyone, I introduced myself in the introduction thread, and I have a couple questions!

First, I'm knitting a baby blanket (first project ever!) on size 6 circs, and I am really pleased with my work so far. However, whenever I see a pic of someone else's finished product done with larger needles the stitching looks so small and tight, yet mine doesn't look that way...even though I'm a fairly tight knitter. Is this something that will be corrected after blocking, or are the photographs I'm seeing deceiving my eyes?

Also, is it normal to have tight stitches when doing cables? They look good to me, but the stitches get really tight when I cross over.

Thank you! :)

[Lisa R.]

How tight your stitches look is part of what is called "gauge." It depends on a number of things including how tightly/loosely you knit, your needle size, your yarn size, and your stitch pattern. It may be that you're using a smaller yarn size for your needle size than the pictures you're looking at.

And yes, cable stitches do get tighter...you're basically stretching one set of stitches around another set. It looks weird, and is a bit hard to knit the next row, but it evens out as you go (as you're apparently figuring out!)

[suzeeq]

Even tension comes with practice and a baby blanket is great practice. Also, the pictures were probably taken after the blanket was washed which evens out the stitches quite a lot.