Friday, June 30, 2006

Oh my gauge!

Wow. I went down two needle sizes for Elann's yarn Sonata. The yarn band calls for size 6, the pattern calls for size 6... and when I did a swatch (thankfully!) in the round on my usual bamboos I had 4.25-4.5 inches instead of 4! And when I tried it on size 5 needles, it was pretty much the same! Only when I went down to size 4 (and that was some kind of Addi-like needle, ie, metalic, that my mom gave me a few years back) - size 4, people! - could I get gauge!

If this means I'm not such a tight knitter anymore, that's good. But I didn't think I'd become so loose that I'd need to go down so far in my needle sizes. I'd like to be smack dab in the middle, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it's not just me, that it's also the yarn. I feel like my tension is much looser with cotton yarns, as well as with thinner yarns, than with thicker wooly yarns.

Well, let's just hope the swatching worked and I stay on gauge for Soleil, because it appears that gauge is very important for that pattern.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I often wonder who the heck test knits yarn to get a recommended gauge, because I can never, ever get the recommended gauge. It must be the yarn or the test knitter, because I don't think we are the problem!

Anonymous said...

Weird! Gauge always drives me nuts. Some people seem to regularly go down two needle sizes but I'm usually right in the middle.

Anonymous said...

I always go down two needle sizes and for crochet, i have to go down three sizes.

I got some more of my order from the WEBS sale, and I can't start the lovely summer cardigan that I wanted to knit..... because my arm will be on vacation for at least the long weekend due to my nerve troubles....