Understanding Gauge In Knitting

Sarah — Fri, 05 Feb 2016 01:27:25 +0000

If you’ve fallen in love with a particular yarn and you’re wanting to knit up a new project, your best option is to find a pattern designed using that specific yarn. Hopefully the yarn you’ve chosen will have lots of patterns associated with it, so you’ll have a few options to choose from. But if you can’t find a pattern in that yarn, then your next option may be to find another pattern which uses a similar yarn, that has the same “Gauge”. If you don’t match the gauge, then your knitted project is going to come out a different size to the one in the pattern.

So what exactly is “Gauge” then…

Gauge is also sometimes known as tension, and it is the number of stitches and rows over 4 square inches or 10 square centimeters, when using a specified yarn. The size of the needles used, and the type of knitting stitch will also be detailed as part of the gauge.

If you choose to go with a different yarn to what is specified in a pattern, but the two yarns have the same gauge, it is important to note that this doesn’t guarantee that the knitted pattern will turn out exactly as designed. Just because two yarns have the same gauge, it doesn’t mean that they can substitute for each other in any pattern. Often two yarns can have the same gauge, but have quite different yarn qualities and characteristics and therefore the final garment could look and feel quite different from the one in an intended pattern. The way the garment will hang, or drape and the feel of it, can really change depending on how tightly spun the yarn is, the fiber content that the yarn is made of, and even the dye used to color it.

Often you will find in yarn shops, they’ll have knitted samples or swatches, so that you can see how the yarn looks and feels when it is knitted. It can be surprising how different this can be, as compared to looking or touching the yarn on the ball.

We hope this article has helped you in better understanding the importance of “Gauge” in knitting.

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This is where it all begins….

Sarah — Thu, 17 Sep 2015 22:33:18 +0000

So I’m pretty much a brand new knitter… As a child my mum would teach us a bit of knitting here and there… With 4 daughters, I’m sure she figured that it was a good way to get us focused and keep us quiet for 5 minutes. I remember mum would always do the cast-on for me, as this was the hard bit, and then she’d patiently try to show us how to knit row after row, creating a scarf for our dolls! I don’t recall ever finishing a complete scarf, before my patience ran out. And the partly knitted scarf always consisted of multiple holes, some very large! But I remember knitting was really fun, satisfying and addictive, even at a young age. And I’m already looking forward to teaching my own daughter how to knit one day, once she’s big enough to sit still for 2 minutes and hold a pair of needles in her hands.

My love for knitting has been reignited as an adult, now in my 30’s. I began working with a yarn company, and this opened my eyes to the world of knitting which existed out there. Especially in the online space! And having a baby meant I suddenly had someone very special to knit for. It’s very daunting as a new knitter, as there is so much information out there, and all I know is that there is so much that I don’t know, but I’m determined to start learning. I don’t have a lot of free time in my days, but I figured that if I aimed to learn something new every few days, then by the end of the year, I’d know a lot more than I do right now. This would surely push me into the next category beyond a beginner knitter. So that’s what I’m going to do… I’ll aim to learn a whole raft of knitting and crochet facts and skills and I hope to share these with you in my very basic beginners language! If I can understand it, then you can too! Let’s see what happens… 🙂

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