I like that the author anslysed a selection of patterns.
An interesting article on stitch and row gauge (tension)
That is interesting. I usually don’t pay much attention to row gauge unless the sweater pattern is knit cuff to cuff or has raglan seams. Out of curiosity, I will measure row gauge at some point into the actual project.
Thanks for the link. I had seen that article before. I discovered Cheryl Brunette’s videos early on in my knitting. She’s amazing. I’ve learned various ways to cope with knitting gauge over my rather short knitting life. I loved that she dared me to, “Be brave.” I took it to heart. My way of coping with gauge is unconventional at best and tends to ignore the pattern almost entirely. When I grow up I want to be a real knitter. lol
It’s great seeing the chart. It gives proof to what I intuited was going on with gauges on various patterns but I didn’t have the desire to prove the point,Minstead I do as others have said and suggested and disregard a strange row gauge requirement.
My swatches come out, almost always, to the gauge on the yarn band ifninuse the needlemsize on the yarn band. This is often different to the gauge suggested in the pattern.
I do pay attention to my own row gauge in a swatch (whether or not it is as the ball band gauge) as I find it really useful, I like to count rows too and I use the row gauge and the measurement I want to work out number of rows I’ll need.
Thanks for posting this.
Yes, I have been watching a few of her videos. She presents things very clearly. She covers some more obscure (but still very useful) topics as well as all the basics. I wish I had seen them a few years ago, but it’s always fun to find a new knitting guru to study with for a few hours!
The place that I first got tripped up on row gauge was one of Elizabeth Zimmermann’s seamless sweaters. She doesn’t give any row gauge, and mine was obviously different to hers because I ended up with a jumper with ridiculously deep armscyes. I was knitting with a rather stiff yarn (Peace Fleece) and the decrease rates for the upper body needed to be adjusted but I was too green to realise.
I’m having another go now – I think ten years have passed! – so I was searching for information on row gauge and found Cheryl Brunette’s website and this helpful article.
I hate to sound as though I am criticising EZ, but I have seen the odd mention of other people having the same problem. The graph paper idea should help me work out whether I need to adjust. I like the idea of just being able to see and measure what the finished size would be.
After this, I want to try the compound raglan shape given by Maggie Righetti in “Sweater Design in Plain English”. (See Ysolda Teague’s “Blank Canvas” for a nice example of it in use.)
Compound raglan was new to me. Or so I thought. When I found this https://www.ailbiona.com/knitnotes/compoundraglan I realized I already do a version of it. Who knew? I started trying out different things to eliminate some of the saggy baggy sleeve problem so common with raglans. I also use short row shaping to make things fit better. Trying to write out what I do would be a nightmare but it works for me. Once I come up with a cast on count for the back neck I need no pattern for a raglan and can go with whatever stitch patterns strike my fancy. No worries about row gauge, I measure and try things on.
You could call it a shaped raglan, anatomical raglan, variable decrease rate raglan. I’m feeling a bit vague on what “compound” might mean exactly. Can only think of learning about compound interest a million years ago in school and can’t even remember exactly what that concept was!
Your method sounds good. Are the short rows to raise the back neck?
I think Ysolda Teague’s Blank Canvas exactly follows the shape Maggie Righetti did, but we can make any shape we like!
Just for fun – here is a link to a sewing pattern generator. I hope it works. It is just at the point where you choose a raglan style.
Click on one to see how it looks, then press “back” to try a different one. I didn’t know a lot of these. Some would be achievable in knitting, some not practical.
My take is that compound raglan is any increasing that departs from increasing 2 sts on the raglan line evenly spaced. My version is eyeballing the piece and holding it up to my shoulder to see how far I’ve gotten and think about how many more increases I need and do I need them on the body and sleeve or just one side. Sometimes I start with more shoulder stitches and the sleeve gets full enough sooner than the front gets wide enough. I also do extra increases on the body when I’m getting close to the armhole being deep enough, to push the sleeve itself under my arm more like a set in sleeve to help get rid of that unsightly excess fabric that folds and looks less than attractive. Short rows. I suppose the way I do top down raglans is more or less equivalent to doing short row back neck shaping but I start out working flat with back neck and shoulder stitches cast on with only 1 stitch for the front and increase on subsequent rows, how often depends on the neckline I want, and join for a rounded neck pullover by casting on enough stitches so the front and back neck sections are the same stitch count or joining for a V neck when I have enough front stitches. Short rows really come into play for me with armhole and neckline fitting to accommodate a too full bust line. I can lengthen the front armhole area by using short rows to prevent weirdness that results in a neckline that won’t lie flat and gapes. Patterns for sewing would have high bust darts for the same purpose, to eliminate excess fabric; that was when I was learning sew about a hundred years ago and I don’t know if patterns today would have them. Thinking back, I also shortened the top front to make for a more flattering fit. It’s complicated to explain, easy for me to do. I suppose I should point out that I don’t use a pattern for a basic sweater, raglan or set in sleeve style. Adapting a pattern to fit me is just too much bother so I figured out how to do without and made life simpler. It also allows me to do little to no math in the process. I’m a renegade and might be the oddest knitter you’ll ever encounter. I can do just about anything a pattern calls for but I’ll do it my way.