Ugly, lumpy knitting

[flourella]

Hi. I started knitting a couple of months ago and jumped straight to making garments for myself. I've finished three pieces, two of which have been in simple stocking stitch, and all has been going well until this most recent cardigan. It is also in stocking stitch but for some reason it's turning out lumpy. It looks fine in some lights, but when the light shines obliquely across the surface, some Vs have a right leg that sticks out more than the left. Not many, but enough scattered throughout to make it look quite ugly.

Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong? I don't know if I'm describing it properly; all attempts to search the problem on Google show me results for "rowing out" and I'm sure that's not what this is. It is uneveness affecting individual stitches. I'm using pure wool for the first time, so is that the problem? Does pure wool have a texture which is less forgiving of a beginner's work? I've never blocked before, having only used acrylic blends, but will that help? Or do I just have to like the result or lump it (literally!)

It could be that you aren’t keeping the same tension all the way along, or possibly the wool stretches a bit when you are making the stitch. It is possible it’ll resolve when you do a first wash on completion

Could you be twisting the stitches? This will happen if you knit into the leg that's not leading?

Blocking will help loads! Just soak it in some water for a couple of hours (there’s a detergent called Soak you can use that makes it smell & feel nice) and then leave it to dry flat.

If you don’t have time for that, you can lay it flat on an ironing board & blast it with a steam iron - don’t actually let the iron touch it, just hover above & let the steam do its thing. You get better results with soak blocking but this is also worth a shot.

Thanks for replying. I gave up on that cardigan and went back to the safety of my acrylic blends. Everything looks fine when I use those, so I think it must be the texture of that wool showing greater stitch definition. Or something. I'm confident that I'm not twisting the stitches, but perhaps I do need to be more mindful of the tension when making the stitch.

Maybe I will go back to it and finish & block one piece to see if it can be fixed. I hope so, because this project has been a bit of a waste of money so far and I have some lovely vintage buttons for it. I will buy a board and some pins!

Blocking definitely fixes a multitude of sins! I’ve never been bothered by how my finished garments look after blocking, and my stitch tension is all over the place (I’m a slow knitter so I don’t think that helps). I may be less fussy, but I think it’s the blocking!