Of all the things you have learned about knitting, gauge is one of the most important and most
overlooked concepts. Though gauge is already covered in Chapter 6, too much emphasis cannot
be placed on achieving the proper gauge before beginning a project. All designs begin with a
gauge swatch. Every measurement and every bit of shaping relies on the specified gauge.
PROVING THE POINT ABOUT
GAUGE
Here is a scenario that should prove
how important it is to knit to the exact
gauge of your knitting pattern. Say you
are knitting a hat that should have a
finished brim circumference of 20
inches. Your pattern calls for a gauge
of 3 stitches per inch and therefore
asks you to cast on 60 stitches. You
make a gauge swatch and find that
you are getting a gauge of 2^1 ⁄ 2 stitches
per inch. You figure that a half-stitch
difference is close enough and pro-
ceed with the knitting of the hat.
When you finish the hat, you find that
it is far too big, that the brim is actu-
ally 24 inches around. That’s because
60 stitches divided by 2^1 ⁄ 2 equals 24.
A mere half stitch can add up to a big
difference when multiplied over many
stitches. You would not want to spend
weeks working on a sweater in an
expensive yarn only to find that in the
end it is much too small.Looking Again at Gauge.
THE ILLUSIVE ROW GAUGE
While it is of utmost importance to attain an accurate stitch gauge, it is not always easy to attain both the stitch and
row gauge that your pattern calls for. While row gauge is not always as crucial as stitch gauge—because many patterns
call for you to knit something until it is a certain number of inches long rather than for calling you to knit a specified
number of rows—there are many instances in which you may have to make adjustments to make up for inaccurate row
gauge. Say you are knitting a striped hat, and the pattern says to knit a certain number of rows per stripe and to com-
plete a certain number of stripes before shaping the top. If you are getting less length per row than the pattern speci-
fies, then you will have to knit more rows per stripe or knit more stripes than the pattern calls for to achieve the correct
length before shaping the top.