Get to Know Your Pattern: Understanding Your Gauge

Hi guys, Mary Beth Temple here. Welcome to the knitting circle. And sometimes when you are a new knitter especially you see the gauge information on a pattern and you understand what it means. You know that that's what you're going to aim for but you don't know why you need to aim for it. So in this video we're going to talk about the different effects that changing gauge can have on your finished project. So let's talk about the dreaded G word which is gauge G A U G E. And the issue that a lot of people have is that they don't want to do what we call a gauge swatch but then they get upset that their knitting doesn't look like it does in the picture. So what the gauge swatch in any given pattern will tell you is the exact gauge that the person who made the sample got when they knit the sample. So in the case of the beautiful Apple root here let's cheat and take a look at that real quick. That is the Apple river shawl available here at the knitting circle. And the gauge for this pattern is 14 stitches and 26 rows equals 4 inches in garter stitch. So for you to get a garter stitch gauge you're going to knit a garter stitch swatch with the needles that you are going to make the project with, with the yarn that you're going to make the project with, and you're going to block it like you're going to block the project and then you're going to measure your gauge. And you're going to see if it comes close. Now for this particular pattern it's as gauge is not critical, however a different gauge will affect the size of the shawl and the amount of yarn used. And this is why we care about gauge. Uh in my family, there was a blanket that my sister knit for her first grandchild, and she knit it so tightly. It was sort of like a brick and it didn't have any flexibility. And the reason I'm bringing it up is it took twice as much yarn as the pattern said it would because she was not getting enough stitches per square inch to match the pattern. Now you will also see gauge on yarn labels. Now on a yarn label the gauge is an average, a median like what a, what the average person will get when using this product and this knitting needle. So for example, this is a mass market yarn label and it says right here on a 5 millimeter or U.S. 8 we're going to get 17 stitches in 23 rows, to 4 inches or 10 centimeters. Again, it's an average. If you don't get that it doesn't mean you're failing at life. It just means that you don't knit at the tension or gauge as the average person. I also brought some these are from different independent yarns. So um you'll find a lot on the indie yarns. They'll give you a range. It'll tell you use a U.S. 1 to 3 in two and a quarter millimeter three and a quarter millimeter. It doesn't tell you how many stitches per inch here. Diddo over here. It will tell you uh 6 to 8 stitches per inch in a U.S. 0 to 4. Now that's a pretty huge range but there's a pretty huge range of knitters. So if you were trying to finish a project, particularly if it's a garment and it has to be the exact gauge of the pattern that you were working on you're going to start by doing a swatch. Like I said, in the needles you want to use in the yarn you want to use. And then you're going to block it. You're going to block the swatch just like you would block the finished project. Or if it's, maybe it's a mass market yarn you're going to throw it in the washer, throw that swatch in the washer and see what happens. You need to compare your actual gauge to the gauge on the pattern, to see where the differences might be. If you come out dead even good for you, you're done. If it says 14 stitches, for example and you are getting 10 stitches say to 4 inches instead of 14. So you're getting two few stitches. You need to go down a needle size or two and try again. A smaller needle will give you more stitches. So the opposite is also true. If you're going for 14 stitches to the inch and you're getting 18, then you want to go to a bigger needle because your bigger needle will make the stitches a little bit bigger. Therefore you will need fewer to get to your 4 inches. And you're going to try that. I will also point out that the type of needle that you use can affect gauge whether you use a wooden needle, either unfinished bamboo or a polished wood is going to react differently than metal, or silver loom which is going to react differently than plastic or resin. So you can also mess around and see which exact needle gives you the right gauge. Now, this all sounds like a lot of work and it's not the most fun of a knitting project in my personal opinion. However, if you want a beautiful shawl that looks like the photo, or you want a sweater that fits then you need to achieve the gauge. And all the time spent knitting that gauge swatch and achieving gauge is going to take all the frustration or most of it out of your project because you don't want to just dive head first and knit a whole sweater and get to the end and realize that your gauge wasn't even close to what the designer got. And the sweater doesn't fit who you wanted it to fit. But one more time, the gauge on a pattern is the gauge that the knitter who knitted the sample got. If you have to change your needle size or make some adjustments in other ways, you are not a failure as a knitter, you are not doing it wrong. You are adapting your unique knitting style to the beautiful pattern that you want to make. So remember if you don't immediately get the gauge that's specified in the pattern, that's not a fault. It's something you can fix. I'm Mary Beth Temple. This is the knitting circle. Thanks for hanging out. I'll see you again later.