Persistent Knitter

We all hear about it, we all know we should do it - but knitting a gauge swatch is such a pain!  Sometimes it just doesn’t make sense. I don’t like doing a flat gauge swatch when I’ll be knitting in the round. I don’t do gauge swatches on socks because they are pretty small and it doesn’t usually matter what specific gauge I get as long as the sock fits. It’s easy to try the cuff on when you’ve just started for a sanity check; and if you have to rip, it’s not a huge investment in time.

So what’s the big deal with gauge anyway?

Well, here’s an exapmle of the same pattern, same number of stitches knit with different needles:

Note that there are the same number of repeats of the heart (5) in each sock. 

Sock on the left was knit with 2.75mm needles and has a much looser fabric and is much looser on my leg. You can also see it’s about 1" longer than the sock on the right where the heart ends. (The heel on this one is also done, but ignore that part for sake of this discussion) Gauge here was 6.25 st/inch in the pattern area.

The sock on the right was knit with 2.0mm needles and it’s gauge is 7st/inch in the pattern area. The fabric is much firmer and will definately last longer as a sock.  The fit is much more snug on my leg.

It’s obvious looking at this example that bigger needles = a bigger finished item when using the same pattern, same number of stitches and the same yarn. What is sometimes difficult to grasp is that the gauge on the larger item has a smaller number of stitches per inch.

It really makes sense when you do the math:
60 sts ÷ 6.25 st/inch = 9.6 inches around
60 sts ÷ 7 st/inch = 8.57 inches around

The second sock is a whole inch smaller than the first.  Either sock would fit me, and I can adjust the foot of the sock to be on less stitches (or go down a needle size) for the bigger sock.   With a sweater, you’ll have hundreds of stitches so the impact becomes much greater:
200 sts ÷ 6.25 st/inch = 32.0 inches around
200 sts ÷ 7 st/inch =  28.6 inches around

I left the gauge numbers the same just for example purposes. (you wouldn’t knit a sweater at that tight of a gauge even in this yarn)  The size of our garment is now almost 3.5 inches different! That’s the difference between a nicely shaped sweater fitting just right or being too tight.

The more stitches you cast on, the bigger impact the gauge will have on your finished item.  If you don’t like to do gauge swatches (ahem. Like me!), just keep this in mind and know that it’s better to rip out when you’re only a few inches in than have a sweater that’s too small or too large.  The effort you put into making it right will definately be worth it. In the meantime, just consider that you’re really getting your money’s worth out of the yarn that you end up re-knitting a few times.  :)