Nov 10th, 2015
Frogging my new project!
I’ve been knitting merrily along on my colorblock Lopi sweater, and yesterday afternoon I knit to about two inches below the armholes and started thinking, “I wonder if this is too large.” So this morning I put the stitches on my 52″ Denise cable and tried on the sweater. The results were comical:
Yes, I do believe that falls in the “too large” category! What happened?
I had very carefully knit and measured a gauge swatch and ended up at 3.5 stitches per inch. When I dug out my ruler this morning, though, I found that the actual sweater was coming in at 3 stitches per inch. And no, it wasn’t a matter of knitting flat vs. knitting in the round. I had knit the swatch flat, but the first section of this sweater (the gray part) was knit flat and only when I switched to the blue yarn did I start knitting in the round. When I measured this morning, both of those sections came in at 3 stitches per inch. And my sweater was sized to fit someone with a 44″ chest!
I am pretty sure I’m cursed when it comes to gauge. Whatever number I get on my gauge swatch ends up being different from the number I get on the actual knitting. This happens almost every single time. I think rulers and measuring tapes are all conspiring to gaslight me.
I have ripped out the whole thing and will start it anew tonight, this time following Ann Budd’s numbers for the 38″ sweater at the 3-stitches-per-inch gauge. I’m actually not feeling too discouraged about this. Bulky yarn knits up fast, and I really want to be sure I’m 100% pleased with the final result. So it pays to take the time to do it right!
2 Responses to “Frogging my new project!”
ARGH! I feel your pain! I, too, have a tendency to knit things too large—I have an extreme dislike for sweaters being too tight both across the bust and around the upper arms. It just makes months of kitting look BAD. But I’m finally learning that one of many great things about wool, especially lopi, is that you can block the living crap out of it. So lately, I’ve been a little better about knitting something to a smaller gauge, knowing that the blocking can help ease it out a little.
But, yes, you need to be 100% satisfied with it!
Thanks, Gina, for the reminder about the Awesome Power of Blocking! :)
Marsha recently posted..Frogging my new project!