Friday, February 19, 2010

Gauge Lies

It always amazes me how gauge lies. Therein lies the difficulty in getting knitted items to fit; yarn stretches and behaves unpredictably when knitted up! My measurements and calculations don't always knit up the way I predict. For example, this sleeve:
Became too long, despite my calculations about length. Thank goodness for top-down knitting! I will rip back and reknit the cuff, and it will fit my exact length! And after blocking, if it stretches some more, I can also adjust it. Using a superwash yarn here can mean it might lengthen in the blocking, as the scales are closed, so the yarn won't stick to itself so much. Or so I believe.
I often will knit the sleeves after I get the body divided and a few inches knitted on that, because if I am going to have just enough yarn, I'd rather the sleeves fit and the body be a few rows short than vice versa.
Meanwhile, to answer Tanja's question, here is a nifty free charting application that I have been using:

Meanwhile, my pineapple is growing!
And of course we had more snow the other day, so here is that obligatory shot:

I am having a lot of fun with Ingrid, both my own knitting and that of my test-knitters. Here is one beautiful example, using yarn hand dyed by the knitter:
You can also see how Ingrid herself is coming along with her sweater here: : http://strickpraxis.wordpress.com/

3 comments:

Sue Dennis said...

Oh my, so much snow, while we sweat Down Under.
cheers, Sue

Elizabeth Rosenberg said...

Just left a comment on Ravelry. I am so happy that you got this thing done, and so proud of you for CHARGING for it!!!! May you sell many, many, many copies!!!! Go Jeri!

robin said...

I can't wait to start this sweater - probably after I finish my Ravelympics WIP Dancing projects! I'm thinking I'll use some gray Tess Cultivated Silk & Wool I have in my stash...I may knit the 34 at a slightly smaller gauge to get a finished chest measurement of around 32ish.

I couldn't agree more about the wondrousness of top-down knitting, and gauge sometimes lying in a garment vs. the swatch. Another thing I do lately is wash the garment mid-stream (on waste yarn) to make sure I'm not going to have big changes after washing - because again, washing the swatch doesn't always tell the story.

I've added your blog to my reading list! I look forward to seeing what you design next!