About knitting machine stitches: tuck

… constantly in progress. Last updated: April 2026

Despite being one of the prettiest, tuck-stitch is the most finicky stitch in my opinion. So, below couple of tips for everybody on how to make it less painful to knit beautiful tuck-stitch patterns.

1. Make sure the tuck brushes or wheels (if your machine/sinker plate/carriage are equipped with those) are pushed forward. It is possible to form nice tuck stitches without them, but it is way better WITH them.
2. Tension should be set on lower numbers; it will also depend on your yarn. Swatch, swatch, swatch before using tuck for a garment to discover the right combination of tension and yarn.
3. Poorly formed tuck stitches could be because of the static (yarn is prone to static, the air in the room is dry, there is minor rust in the machine or carriage, insufficient oiling): a dryer sheet on the nedlebed, attach wax to the tension mast, spray your yarn with anti-static.
4. Tuck needs even weight across the knitting.
5. Sometimes I move the carriage a bit slower when knitting tuck to check if all stitches rolled off the needle heads correctly. If you see that some stitches did not slide off the needle heads, do it manually. This might happen if the yarn is textured, the needle heads are not as smooth, due to static, or insufficient weight.
6. The carriage is moved too quickly or too slowly.
7. Needle heads are not smooth enough: oil them, polish them or replace
8. Latches for tuck-stitch need to be ideal: not bent or sticky latches. Thus, check the needles especially thoroughly if you see mis-patterning or poorly formed stitches.

Always remember that tuck-stitch takes twice as many rows to form. Thus, pay attention to it when calculating your gauges and yarn consumption.

tension

Tuck comes up shorter than stockingette, therefore you will have to do more rows. I don’t want to say here what mine comes out at, it depends on yarn, tension and individual machine, so yours may be different. If you need help working it out, just ask.

wax

All tuck does. You have all these extra threads on the needles and not much room to move before they will fall off. Even weight all the way across.