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July 20, 2004

Let's revisit my normal whining.

Let's revisit my normal whining.
I hate gauge. I hate it, detest it, and abhor it.
Today I flung my knitting across the room in total frustration.
I knit a gauge swatch from the Classic Elite cotton. After playing about, I got gauge on 4.5mm needles. Very unusual. Usually I have to go down a size to get remotely close to gauge, today I go up a size. Okay, whatever.
I dutifully washed the swatch (And I must admit that it washed beautifully - no shrinking, no stretching, laid out beautifully, no rolling, Dry Clean only not necessary!) Gauge still spot on. So I cast on the top. You start at the point, and do your increases until you get the required number of stitches. My gauge is way off. The top should have been 14 3/4" wide at this point. It was over 16" wide. This is where the flinging came in. I am now getting stitch gauge on 3.25mm needles, but my row gauge is short.
Why oh why oh why do I have so much damn trouble with gauge???
I think I'll stick to scarves.

Posted by Donna at July 20, 2004 10:45 PM

Comments

There is only one explanation: Cotton is evil!

Posted by: Pubah@aol.com at July 20, 2004 11:48 PM

I've determined it's not you or me, it's the people who write the patterns. My theory is they are the ones who knit weird, making their row gauge funky. We need a I Hate Row Gauge button!

Posted by: Jill at July 21, 2004 03:04 AM

I feel for you because I have the same problem no matter what I'm working on.

Posted by: monica at July 21, 2004 04:38 AM

I was thinking about this today--I learned (probably wrong) that if your stitch guage is on, oyour row guage will be on as well.--how come that rarely happens? It would be nice if all patterns came in measurements instead of rows. Usually I keep going till I wanna or stop when I wanna..Please don't become a scarf only girl--I like seeing your FOs..

Posted by: Renada at July 21, 2004 02:55 PM