Sunday Knitting Blog

The following is from MDK again, an article on gauge from Patty Lyons:

My inbox for the last three months has been filled with a variety of questions on the same touchy subject. So, to get us ready for Bang Out a Sweater month, I’m going to be devoting the next two columns to one topic. That’s right, it’s time to talk about the elephant in the room. The fly in the ointment, the monkey wrench in the works. The pee in the pool: gauge.

Yes, I hear your collective groans through my computer screen. Just settle down, stick your head between your knees, breathe into a paper bag, and let’s go to the mailbox. 

Dear Patty, 
I never can get row gauge right. No problem with stitch gauge, but I cannot figure out what to do to get stitch gauge and row gauge at the same time. Sometimes the pattern can be adjusted for the row gauge I am getting, but I cannot understand why I cannot get it to begin with.
Michelle

Dear Michelle,

Many hands shoot up in the air when I ask my students, “Who has had trouble matching both stitch gauge and row gauge?” Then I say, “Take a look around the room. Anyone who is not raising their hands falls into one of two groups. They have never measured row gauge, or they are lying.”
There are so many factors that affect row gauge: the twist of the yarn, the style or method you knit, your purl row, and your needle material to name just a few.

If you know different ways to knit, you can often change your row gauge by changing your style. Continental knitting can yield a different row gauge than English, Portuguese, or combination knitting.

Then there’s the loosey-goosey purl.

Have you ever seen gaps that look like stripes on the WS of your fabric? That is called “rowing out,“ which is caused when your purl rows are taller than your knit rows.

Try an alternative purling method like the Portuguese purl or purling backward, or use a smaller needle for the purl rows.

One crazy simple way to change your row gauge is to change needle material.

Here’s a lace swatch where I changed needle material between every repeat. 

The first repeat (measured from above the cast on) was knit with nickel, and the repeat is 1 7/8” tall.

The second repeat was knit with stainless steel, and it is 1 3/4” tall.

The third repeat was knit with plastic, and it is 1 5/8” tall.

The final repeat was knit with bamboo, and it is 1 7/16”.




So take comfort in the knowledge that it’s not you, it’s them. It’s the stitches’ fault. But there are many ways you can wrangle that row gauge into submission. And if you can’t, there’s math, but that’s a topic for another day.