help with knitting tension

[Mercedes]

After years of not knitting I got the needles out and knitted my dd a shrug but it was a wee bit too small. I checked tension afterwards and it was tight and not enough stitches.

I've started a new project and I decided to do a tension square. This time although the width's ok the length is about an inch bigger than it should be. To sort this do I switch to smaller needles but what effect will this have on width or can i just ignore this ?

Help

Yep, smaller needles will sort that, drop half a size and try again. Tension is very much influenced by your knitting style (how tight you hold the wool).

Once you know you need a half or one size smaller you shouldn't need to do a tension square every time (unless you chage your knitting style).

Alternative is to try and change your knitting style. If the sample is too long your knitting is too loose so you need to increase the tension of the wool strand you loop round the needle to make the next stitch. Do you hold the wool correctly (looped round little finger and middle)? If not try utube for a tutorial vid. Shout if you can't find one and I'll have a look.

hth

Thanks that's what I thought I might have to do.

If I didn't change the needles would the garment just be longer at bit from armpit to shoulders and therefore last longer?
or if I knitted a smaller size would it all work out in the end?

You could just knit the length it says in the pattern.
Usually patterns say something like cast on x stitches and knit y cm to the armhole. Measure the first time, count how many rows you have done to achieve that and match back and front, don't measure again.
So long as your width is alright it shouldn't matter about the length.

You could knit to length stated but you will run into problems if you're increasing or decreasing as you won't have enough rows to get the correct width (or will have too many). Best to work on your knitting style and/or adjust the needle size you use

Only if it's very different. Knitting is very forgiving and will cope with quite a bit of variation.

DutchOma's method will be fine for smaller children's garments. For adult garments it might bodge up arm hole lengths a bit. An inch too long on what is probably a 4" x 4" square is actually quite a lot. I would recommend experimenting with needle sizes to be honest. Changing your style is easier said than done, but I would recommend keeping your hands as relaxed as possible - it's meant to be relaxing after all! Elizabeth Zimmerman (knitting guru) says to keep your hands as relaxed as you can, and pop down a few needle sizes (apparently she regularly used 2 or 3 sizes smaller than stated, so you'd be in good company).

As I didn't have smaller needles and would have to wait a week before I got back to John lewis I decided just to go for it.
The jumper is for my cardigan is for my dd so I figure if it's too long (cos my width is ok) it will do her for longer.
When I was younger and knitted a lot I never used to bother about tension I just knitted so I thought I would revert back to type.