If you want to knit a top down sweater, where do you start? Have you ever tried a percentage sweater with top down knitting? You can create your own top down sweater patterns if you know three things: your knitting gauge, what size you want your finished sweater to be and your neck measurement. Can it be that easy? [...]
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There are two ways your knitting gauge can be all wrong–the number of stitches per inch and/or the number of rows per inch. Wrong gauge spells disaster for your sweater, no matter how well you knit each stitch. What do you do to fix your gauge so your project isn’t ruined from the get go? [...] There are four possibilities for what to do if you don’t get gauge. If you hate or fear knitting math, you’ve probably already made your sweater anyway even if you didn’t get gauge. And you’ve probably already cried when it didn’t fit. What other options do you have so you can dry your tears? [...] There you are, knitting a gauge swatch just like everyone says you must, only you don’t know what it’s telling you. If the pattern wants a gauge of 5 stitches per inch, but your swatch has a gauge of 6 1/4 stitches per inch, do you know what to do? If you need fewer stitches per inch, what size needle should you try next? [...] If you fear math, even knitting math, you probably have the unwearable sweaters to prove it. But if you’re a new knitter, and you can’t quite get gauge when you knit your swatch, you may think “close” is good enough. Let’s just see, shall we, how much difference one stitch per inch in gauge makes. [...] If knitting math confuses you, it’s hard to know what size your sweater will turn out. If you’re tired of knitting sweaters that don’t fit you or anyone you know, grab some loose change. A handful of coins will help clear up the confusion for you in a visual way. [...] Once upon a time (a week or two ago) when I took a wee knitting break, I saw a video of the Yarn Harlot, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, knitting like the wind. Have you seen it? She tucks a straight knitting needle under her right arm, slides stitches onto it with her left needle held crosswise and flips yarn stitch after stitch like a sewing machine. On speed. Her hands almost blur. [...] Were you betrayed by a knitting gauge swatch? Holy wool, is there no justice? If you dutifully knit and measured a gauge swatch despite your eagerness to cast on for your project, why doesn’t the darn sweater fit? How on earth did the dirty no-good lying gauge swatch ruin your sweater? Sad to say, but even the best knitters encounter gauge swatches that lie. Here are the top six reasons. [...] Unfortunately for some of us, how to gauge knitting involves making a nice big gauge swatch. For best results, you bind it off, then wash and dry it as you would your knitted item. When you measure across two or four inches in the middle you discover the exact number of stitches you get per inch. If the very idea of a gauge swatch gives you the willies, you may just cast on in hopes anything close to gauge is good enough. Hello, math fudge. [...] If you’re a knitter who’s math phobic, you have the ruined sweaters to prove it. One was the wrong size, another was the wrong fit, yet another ran out of yarn before completion. Sound familiar? What you need is a math monkey who’ll help you do the math. Or a way to make knitting math simple. [...] |
Helpful Links
Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Cast On Video Tutorial Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off Photo Tutorial TECHknitting Sweater Knitting Pattern Generator Meg Swansen explains Elizabeth's Percentage System on Math4Knitters podcast Knitmore Girls podcast on ratios #78 Knitmore Girls podcast on sizing, fit and ease Brass Needles podcast Episode 48 with Gail Carriger's segment on sweater sleeves (about 7 minutes in) Brass Needles podcast Episode 49 with Gail Carriger's segment on sweater necklines (almost 9 minutes in) Fabulous Crochet Designer Vashti Braha Start Knitting Socks for Soldiers  
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