Knitting Rules! (15 page)
Authors: Stephanie Pearl–McPhee
Gauge is not some magical thing. There is no incredible standard among designers and their test knitters. Each individual pattern has a gauge that is a reflection of the unique tension of the person who knit it up. Therefore, it is impossible to say “I always knit to gauge.” How can you automatically hit the tension of this unknown knitter?
On the other hand, ignoring the subtleties of gauge (or deciding to lie to your subconscious knitter) when you're working on a shawl is not nearly so problematic. A shawl that comes out a few inches (or feet) in an unexpected direction will still yield something you can wear. It might be an afghan, a scarf, or a kerchief instead of a shawl, but it's still going to be a knitted item of some usefulness.
You have to look at what your relative gauge risk (RGR) is and decide how just how seriously you're going to take gauge, swatching, and their attendant hysteria with each individual project.
If you're already a knitter, you know all about gauge. In the beginning, it's the bane of your existence, and as you get more experienced it becomes a tool you can use to fine-tune your knitting. Like a sculptor, you give a little, you take a little, you tweak here and there. Is the pattern a bit too big? Too small? Does it lack drape? Does it flare at the bottom? Gauge, my friends, gauge is the answer to all of this.
On the following page, you'll find the 10 times when you need to pay attention to gauge. I tried hard to come up with 10 times that you could ignore gauge but it turns out that there are only five that I could think of. I tried to get you off the hook, I really did. I phoned friends, I sat in on knitting groups, I searched the Web. But, it turns out there really are twice as many times when you have to pay attention than there are when you can ignore it. I'm sorry.
Scenario 1
If you're knitting a dishcloth
. Think about it. What would you knit to test gauge? A square? That's a dishcloth.
Scenario 2
If you're a “process” knitter
and the thought of ripping back your work as many times as it takes is really no problem for you, as it's all knitting and, darn it, that's what you like.
Scenario 3
If you're making something for which size doesn't matter
(a scarf or a shawl, for example).
Scenario 4
If you have tons of yarn
. Buckets. So much that if your gauge is way off and you end up needing 17 more skeins to finish, you don't care. (We won't discuss who's going to fit into something that takes 17 extra skeins: you're the one who's going to have a sweater that's a house cozy.)
Scenario 5
If you're knitting something that starts with a few stitches
and increases as you go. If something is getting bigger slowly, you can stop when it's big enough. A truly brilliant example of this is a hat knit from the “top down.”
Ten Times When You Should Worry About Gauge
If you want your work to be exactly the same (or as close as possible, considering that you changed the neckline, the yarn, and the cable pattern) as the sweater in the picture on your pattern.
If your bust is 36 inches and you'd like the sweater to be related to that fact in any kind of way.
If you're worried about your yarn supply. Different gauges take different amounts of yarn. Even with a scarf for which the gauge element doesn't matter much, if you're knitting to a much larger gauge, you may run out of yarn. (I'd tell you how I learned this, but it was so painful that I still can't speak of it.)
If you're up against a deadline and you don't have much time. Pulling back a hat and trying again because you took a chance is no big deal unless it's Christmas Eve, the hat is your dad's present, and he doesn't have a head the size of an all-you-can-eat salad bowl.
If you're the sort of knitter who hates ripping out whole projects and finds it emotionally demoralizing.
If you're knitting a yarn like mohair, chenille, or anything else that doesn't hold up well (or is snatched bald) when it's ripped out and started over 26 times during the process of trial and error.
If you didn't swatch for your last sweater and it worked out really, really well. (The knitting goddess can seldom resist an opportunity to smack you down.)
If you're absolutely convinced you don't need to swatch because you “always get gauge.” (See number 7.)
If you don't have many friends or if your friends are all the same size. If you have an assortment of friends and family in various shapes and sizes, you can just give away the wrong-size knitted thing to someone it fits.
If you made the first mitten of a pair six months ago when you were a new knitter and you're only now knitting the second one. Things (like your tension, your emotional state, and your relative skill) change and your gauge changes with them.
