Fair Isle gauge and Addi needles vs. Inox

General Knitting
1

Hi all.

So I’m knitting a baby Dale of Norway sweater for my little girl, and made a gauge swatch using a circular Inox (not Express) needle. It was 8 st/inch, just what the pattern called for. It’s a size 2, 2.75 mm needle. Fine. I have it in a 16 inch needle.

Since I"m casting on 205 stitches with DON’s Baby Ull, I figured I should get a 24" needle, since it’s a 26" sweater. And since I really prefer Addi’s, I went for a size 2 in a 24" needle. Here’s the thing, though: Addi’s size 2 is 3.00 mm, not 2.75.

Now, I made my gauge with only 1 yarn, as opposed to making a gauge swatch with a pattern to see how it went. And in searching previous posts, I see that Ingrid posted that stranded color work tends to be tighter than single color.

So my question is, do I switch to the 3.00 mm, save my sanity and hope that the mixture of stranded knitting and a bigger needle all work out? (Also, I’m not a big fan of Inox coated aluminums.) Or do I stick with the 16" needle that’s 2.75 because that’s what I got gauge on?

Any thoughts would be welcome. Thanks all!

Alison

2

The Fair Isle will be tighter than the single-yarn swatch. You’re talking .25 mm, and it’s a baby sweater. I’d go with the needle you like–at least that’s what I’d do.

If it was something for an adult where fit had to be exact, I’d suggest doing a FI swatch with the larger needle, but babies get bigger very quickly.

I do think, though, that the needle will help compensate for the tighter gauge of the FI.

3

Yes, I agree with you. Thank you so much for taking the time for the post!

Alison