Mar 13, 2023
Who was going to tell me I need to do extra stitches and not just what the pattern says to make a gauge swatch?? No one told me how to gauge swatch and I think I've been doing it wrong.
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Who was going to tell me I need to do extra stitches and not just what the pattern says to make a gauge swatch?? No one told me how to gauge swatch and I think I've been doing it wrong.
Just Do the Math: Knitting In Another Gauge
It is an odd thing but many people seem to veer away in terror from not very hard math. I once asked an excellent knitter (wearing a lace shawl with leaf motifs!) about reworking a knitting pattern because I could not hit gauge with the yarn I wanted to use, and she shied like a frightened horse and said, she has a knitting friend who could do that but she would NEVER try. In her book on writing patterns for knitting, Kate Atherley quotes a woman who seems irate that any pattern would tell her to make 12 decreases evenly distributed along a row, instead of telling her how many stitches between the decreases.
Notice we are talking about needing to do multiplication and division which are the kind of math we learned in grade school. The kind of math we started out learning with flash cards. Which makes me want to say, have a little respect for your brain: Just Do the Math.
So here is my doing the math on a baby sacque from the Good Housekeeping NEW Complete Book of Needlecraft, reprint of a 1959 edition with some added patterns in 1971. The original used “Baby wool” at 7 knit stitches to the inch and I had baby yarn given to me by a friend and could only get 5 stitches per inch even with small needles. I looked over the pattern, realized they had given the measurements which amount to a schematic in words and sketched it out. Then I went through the pattern and recalculated all the number of stitches given in the new gauge. So casting on of 60 stitches turned into 43, knitting 46 stitches until turning back with the white yarn became 33 stitches, then the 26 stitches slipped onto a holder for the side seam became 19, the sleeve itself meant casting on 30 stitches which became 21. You can always use a calculator for this kind figuring.
Vintage patterns from the 1950s usually offered no schematics, and no charts, and sometimes told knitters to just do the math. Some knitting books urged readers to feel free to choose a different stitch pattern and then do the math to make it work. I suspect the simplification of most patterns after the 1960s meant that younger knitters no longer got into the practice of doing the math. I also suspect that the idea of altering a knitting pattern seems more natural to me since I have been altering the schematics we call sewing patterns for many years.
I say we honor our knitting forbears and just do the math. There is little to lose and a whole world of design flexibility to gain.
My cat butt knitting needle gauge is featured in the March issue of Simply Knitting - thank you for including this fun tool ... it always gets a great laugh. 😻🙏🧶❤️
My gauge collection is on Etsy: 🔗 https://etsy.me/3t75fS8
I have one of these and keep it in my project bag so I always know what hook size I'm using! ♥ So handy! https://crochetenvy.com/lacis-slide-on-crochet-gauge/
Back to square one (er, two) - That little bit off of gauge (wishful thinking!) was resulting in a hat that was going to be too big—so I frogged it! 🐸 The swatch on the left = correct gauge, so I’ll start over with the hat.
Why does knitting gauge matter? There are times when a stitch gauge should be perfect (think vests, cardis, pullovers, etc.), because when gauge if off you'll end up with a garment won't fit properly. So, it's very important to check gauge in knitting before you begin a project. This is a s
Why is knitting gauge important? Find out here!
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