A knitting question...

[mamagotcha]

So I wanna make that new vest that just came up on Knitty for my Knitting Olympics entry. It's my very first piece of Real Clothing for myself, and I'm a little nervous... it's gonna take a LOT of yarn.

So I wanna do it right. I'm swatching, even!

I've found that 10 and 10.5 needles don't get gauge, but when I use the 11s to get the width right (4" with 12 stitches), my length is screwy (instead of 4" like it's supposed to be, it's 5 1/4" at 20 rows). In fact, each time I made a gauge swatch, it was longer than wide... and it's supposed to be a square.

Am I just a messed-up knitter? What do I do here?

(If it matters... I'm using doubled Cascade 220.)

Comments

[lorraine-inwa.livejournal.com]

I have no suggestion. My swatches are always too short with the right width. Good luck with the knitting olympics. That is ambitious. Harlot will be proud of you (me too).

[mh75.livejournal.com]

I kinda have no idea, except, if you know that you get 4" instead of 5", you could multiple the number of rows by 5/4 to compensate.

[ef2p.livejournal.com]

This is what I have done in the few cases where size really mattered. Use the swatch to find your personal gauge and adjust the pattern to fit.

[hosterman.livejournal.com]

I third this plan. Congrats on doing all the gauge swatching. I really need to make sure I do that BEFORE I knit anything big. It's so easy to think that I can just resize things a little bit because I'm using a different needle size and then things turn out not quite the way I meant them too. ;) Like the first sweater I ever knit that I made for Eric. It's supposed to fit a 3-6 month old but it's more like a wide toddler sweater. Ah well. He will grow into it, right?

[mamagotcha.livejournal.com]

Yes, he will! And congratulations again! xoxo

[genderfur.livejournal.com]

channelled from Elizabeth Zimmerman: do not worry about row gauge (unless you're knitting something where the numbers actually matter, like you're picking up stitches along an edge). Get the stitch gauge right, and then knit until it's as long as it's supposed to be.

And... the knitting olympics? Is that the Ravolypics I've been seeing references to on Rav? 'Coz I can't find any base information, just various groups' comments on it. Halp?

[mamagotcha.livejournal.com]

It's organized by the Yarn Harlot, Stephanie Pearl-McFee (also knitting humor book writer). http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/

I'm starting to think I might not have enough yarn, drat it. Yanking the pockets now... we'll see what happens...

[genderfur.livejournal.com]

"yanking the pockets"? Does the pattern have pockies that you're going to not do, then?

And will ripping out the swatch give you enough more yarn?

(And I JUST THIS MORNING heard Ms. Harlot being interviewed on a knitting podcast called I believe HYSknits -- 2 gay men in Santa Rosa, I believe. I'll know more as I listen more. I'm starting to hella love knitting podcasts.)

[mamagotcha.livejournal.com]

I've just started one of the pockets, it'll be an easy change and I'll gain half a ball of yarn that way.

You know about Cast-On, then? That's my favorite. Unfortunately, I rarely listen to my podcasts... nobody else here likes them, and I very rarely have a time that I can plug in earbuds and ignore the outside world. I'm way behind on my This American Life and Moth shows, too, waaah!

[genderfur.livejournal.com]

I know about Cast-On (which just went on medical hiatus, waah). Also the Knitting Newscast, I think it's called. I've listened to both of those. Stash & Burn I learned about last night. And I'm about to go searching for more.....

There's something about knitting whilst listening to people talk about knitting... yummy.