Beginner Knitting Confidence, Part 4: Let's Assuage Your Gauge Anxieties!

Gauge has to be hands down one of the most talked about (maybe even a little intimidating) terms in the knitting world! It can feel like a huge barrier to advancing to making larger projects and garments if you feel like you just can't wrap your head around this nebulous concept everyone around you seems to "just get." We definitely don't want that for you! So settle in, because we have plenty to say!

What do we mean when we say "gauge?"

Gauge is what we call how tight or loose you knit you knit and how that affects the fabric you're creating with your stitches.

Think about it like this: if you knit a straight scarf super tightly with the same number of stitches as someone who is knitting super loosely, and you measured them both laying flat with a ruler, you are going to have a smaller and likely denser piece of fabric than that loose knitter. They may have a scarf that's four inches wide while yours is only three and a half.

We all have a natural tension that is unique to us that affects our gauge. However, another way we can change how loose or tight our fabric turns out is by changing our needle size, since bigger needles will create bigger stitches, while smaller needles = tighter stitches. Yarn weight is another thing that can affect gauge.

"Gauge" is also how we discuss how similar or different the fabric your stitches create is in comparison to the fabric intended by the pattern's designer. 

It may sound impossible or at least very complicated to have to match your gauge to a pattern's. Don't fret! We'll walk you through it. 

How do I find a pattern's suggested gauge?

Here's where you want to look on Ravelry. Once you download your pattern, most patterns should also list this info at the very beginning.

Here's where knitting gets a little mathematical! 

Above, it's telling you A) what needle size they used to get their desired fabric (an 8)

and B) that if the pattern designer were to physically take scissors and cut out a 4 by 4 inch square out of the fabric of their sweater, that piece would only be made up of 18 stitches across. Confusing? We'll show you a helpful visual in a second!

Why do I care what the pattern's gauge is, if mine will inevitably be unique?

Pattern designers want you to match their gauge or at least get close as you can so that you have the best shot at getting your sizing correct! If you have a looser gauge than suggested, you may need to make a smaller size, for example. Or you can play around with changing your needle size to "get gauge." Gauge is definitely an imperfect science!

So how do I find MY gauge? 

Most people knit a small square as a trial run with the yarn and needle size they want to use - that's what we call a swatch. This is a way to check your gauge against the pattern's before casting on. We call like to call this stage "interviewing" our yarn. 

We'll keep using Cadence's Harvest Flower Sweater as our example going forward, because she got really close to the suggested gauge for the pattern (which you've already seen the Ravelry page for above). 

So if you theoretically wanted to knit a swatch for a Harvest Flower sweater, you'd cast on at least 18 body stitches and knit in stockinette for at least 28 rows with the hope that that will create a square that's 4 inches wide.

We like to cast on at least five or six extra stitches than suggested on each side when making a swatch so we aren't stretching out a tiny square and struggling to count or measure. It's also helpful to do a little bit of garter stitch border so that your swatch doesn't curl. 

How do we measure our gauge?

Here's the visual that will hopefully make all this make come together and make sense!

Try counting the rows of stitches starting at the beginning of the square and stop counting when you hit the 4 inch line. 

It's exactly 18! That means you got gauge! 

We do really like our Fuzzy Gauge + Needle Check Rulers (shown above) because the window helps us focus on what we're seeing just a little bit better than a regular tape measure. It can be really hard to visually count out stitches so this helps a lot!

What would it look like to not get gauge for the Harvest Flower Sweater?

This is actually a picture of a totally different sweater, with a different gauge, but if your hypothetical gauge swatch for the Harvest Flower turned out looking like this, this would be "not getting gauge"

This sweater's gauge is 20 stitches for 4 inches meaning that it's tighter than the Harvest Flower's suggested gauge. If you went ahead and made your Harvest Flower with this gauge, you'd get a smaller fitting sweater than the pattern intended. The fabric is more condensed!

Why do I have to do a swatch? Can't I just check against the garment itself once I get going?

We like to do a swatch because it will keep you from ripping out an entire project - a small square is much easier to rip out or redo! Though we also often double check our gauge once we get going on the actual project too. 

Some quick-fire Gauge Tips:

• Put corresponding eyelets into your swatch as you go to remember which needle size you were using during which section of your square. This is good for if you're trying out LOTs of different needle sizes - Cadence almost always does this! For example, she will put one eyelet at the start of the row where she starts to knit with a size 1 needle, two eyelets at the start of the row when she switches to a size 2, etc. 
• Don't cut your yarn to your swatch - we always pull ours out and use reuse it for our actual project!
• Treat your gauge swatch the way you plan to treat your garment. Are you going to wet block or spray block your finished project? Or not block it at all? Try it out on your swatch before you measure it, since (depending on the fiber content) getting your yarn wet WILL make it grow!

And finally, how we avoid stressing ourselves out about all of this gauge info: 

We saved our secret to not stressing about gauge for last: a pattern's gauge is truly only a suggestion and is usually just an average. Learning that has made us all feel like we don't "have to" get gauge perfectly every time.

We think of gauge as just a way to have more information to help us make a more informed decision rather than a rule we have to follow exactly every time.

Often if we're a stitch or two off gauge, but we like the fabric, we go with it anyway and try it on A LOT along the way to see if there's any way we need to adjust! 

Gauge is truly a guideline, not a restriction!

Feeling ready to cast on a sweater now? We hope so!

Next time we'll talk about pattern picking!