Gauge Change While Knitting

I learned my lesson early on to ALWAYS make a swatch.

With a perfect Stockinette st swatch gauge, I started a child’s sweater. After 20 rows, I checked the gauge again and instead of 15 sts to 4", I now had 16 sts to 4".

Is this a common situation? And what do I have to do to get back to the correct gauge? It’s all Stockinette st working with the same needles I used to make the swatch.

Thanks for the help!

It’s not uncommon for a project to change gauge midstream. You become more relaxed as you knit. I have heard that you should knit for awhile on something…anything to get into the rhythm of knitting then knit the swatch.

I had the same thing happen to me on a sweater I made… I had to rip out 5 inches of the bottom of the sweater or it was going to be big enough to fit Hagrid. Pain in the neck, but worth it in the end.

Now, with a kids sweater I probably would just continue because kids grow and it’s better to have it a little larger than too small. If you don’t want to do that I guess you could change needle size, but that may be obvious depending on the yarn and how much difference there actually is. Frogging is the other option.

Thanks for the help. I think you’re right, and I’ll just continue on knitting the back. If it looks too weird at the end of the piece, then frogging will be the next step.

I don’t have any problem starting over since the fun is in the knitting.

Thanks again!

or it was going to be big enough to fit Hagrid.

:rofl:

just had to comment on this…

@ Suzeeq - :teehee: