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

[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.