Sunday, June 26, 2011

is it always, always raining somewhere?

I may have mentioned before that I am an exceptionally loose knitter. (Wamps, to her credit, is looser than I, making her incredible.)

For the project swatched above, the pattern called for US 8s with worsted weight yarn. Not wanting to swatch more than necessary, and knowing that I would likely need to size down by at least two sizes, I started knitting a swatch on US 7s. I hadn't made it more than a few rows before I decided that the gauge must be much too large and promptly frogged it to begin the top swatch, knit on US 5s. I loved the fabric made by the 5s, but it was unfortunately smaller than gauge so I tried again with 6s, pictured in the middle. Still smaller. Actually, it was still considerably smaller than gauge, which led me to knit the bottom swatch on 8s.

Which was still smaller than gauge.

I couldn't deal with the thought of sizing-up for gauge, since that would be contrary to my self-proclaimed exceptional nature. So I decided that the rest of my non-knitting life must be taking a toll on my gauge and that it would return to normal as the summer progressed. Keep your fingers crossed for me. (If this theory works out, I may have stumbled on a new use for swatching. Why take your blood pressure? Just see if you're making gauge.)

2 comments:

Elizabeth said...

Incredible, yes!

Seriously though, I'm hoping the pattern is just written by a loose knitter? That can happen right? Well, that or you return to at least the average state of tension soon.

HEB said...

That would be wonderful in multiple ways since that's my biggest concern about writing patterns: how do I account for my loose-knitterness? If I thought that I didn't have to do so, it'd be one less thing in the way of finally getting those wristwarmer and hat patterns done.