The Knitting Fiend

We all either have, or have had issues. Gauge issues.

I was reminded of past gauge issues when I visited A Woman Obsessed; Jenny was working on a very attractive pair of mittens. Shown individual, each would look beautiful. She showed them side by side comparing the cuffs on both and concluded:

Yes, my gauge has changed SO MUCH that the second mitten is going to be at least one and a half times bigger than the first.

Admit it, this has happened to you.

Ok, maybe it hasn’t. After all, I’ve read things like this over and over and over at knitflame:

“My first knitting project was a fair-isle sweater with fully shaped set in sleeves, knit circular on double pointed needles, with cable ribs and it turned out perfectly! All those newbie knitters wasting their time knitting garter stitch scarves out of fun fur are just weenies! Weenies, I tell you!” ¹

But, the fact is, it’s happened to me. It happened when I first learned to knit, and it happened when I first learned to crochet. I learned took up crochet in junior high school, and I made this beautiful afghan. It really is beautiful, and I can’t part with it.

But, look at the photo above and to the left. I folded the afghan so the edge I began working on is next to the edge I finished working on. Notice one edge ripples? Here’s what happened: I began the afghan. My crochet gauge looked just fine to my 15 year old eyes.

As I continued to work, I found my gauge got firmed up and became more consistent. Within 10″ I could see it had changed. However, my 15 year old brain couldn’t be persuaded to unravel and start over. So, I kept working at it.

When I finished, one end was wider than the other. I tried to fix it all up by crocheting several rounds on the edge. I did manage to get the wider edge to be a little narrower– but it ripples. That’s what happens when you gather fabric. It really doesn’t matter whether it’s knit, crocheted or woven. If you gather it, it ripples.

Oh, and of course a similar thing happened when I knit my first sweater. Having successfully knit a pair of mittens, I cast on for a whole sweater. I reasoned as follows: “I can figure out how to decrease. I can figure out how to shape. I can figure out how to cable. What could go wrong?”

Well, I didn’t have any trouble at all with decreasing, shaping or cabling. But, once again, my gauge changed. The ribbing on the right front piece of the cardigan was much looser than the rest of the sweater.

Lucky for me, my trusty afghan was there, in my dorm room, saying “Unravel that piece. Really, unravel it.”

Who can defy a talking afghan? I unraveled and reknit the front. I wore the sweater nearly non-stop for a year. (Then, it succumbed to a laundry disaster. Sigh . . .)

I’m 46 years old. I love the afghan, and I’ll never part with it. And it will always remind me: Many beginners need to get some “mileage” under their belt before starting a large project. Yes. They do.

---

1. Yes. I made this up. But, if you visit those certain knitting oriented email lists, you will read of paragons who took up knitting at the age of 5, and immediately used DPN to knit fully shaped fairisle sweaters using double pointed needles. The items turned out perfectly. None have posted photos of said items.