How to tension the yarn while knitting was not actually a skill I taught.
How to tension the yarn while knitting was not actually a skill I taught. As each student progressed in their knitting skills, each just naturally adopted a method that worked for them.
Everyone's fingers have a different shape. I just weave the yarn through my fingers and knit away because my fingers are very fleshy at the base which naturally pressures the yarn. For many of my students, that first joint is almost skeletal, so multiple wraps around a finger may be needed.
I watched one student wrap the yarn around her ring finger five times. I was quite sure she would not be able to knit more than a stitch or two before having to rewrap. To my amazement, she knitted merrily along with no problem. It was then that I realized that her fingers were almost skeletal. She would never be able to have the sides of her fingers touching across her hand as I did'
Uneven tension is especially visible from the reverse stockinette stitch side of the fabric. The upper third of the first picture shows two uneven rows of work that have left slightly wider spacing between the rows. I had not done any hand knitting for a number of years. When I started teaching the beginner classes, I wanted samples showing the techniques I was discussing. This is one of those early samples.
The second picture shows the stockinette stitch side with the wider gap between the two pin heads. Those bigger stitches are far more difficult to see on the stockinette stitch side of the fabric.