Hi everyone!
I’m having a lot of trouble with gauge. The same yarn on the EXACT same needles is always different sizes, but I tried measuring gauge with two different sized needles and it was the same, but different then usual. On top of that, my knitting projects are always messed up because my gauge is off, even though I’m doing the same thing I have been doing all along with this same yarn and needles. This is the case with all my yarn. Please help me!
It’s the same yarn and needles but a different you. Sometimes you knit a gauge swatch, measure carefully and then as you knit your project you relax and the gauge changes.
Are you working a large enough gauge swatch and measuring over the middle 4 inches? Make the swatch at least 5"x5".
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Yes I’m doing that. I think I’m just doing it slightly different and it’s affecting it
I think this is a common complaint. I certainly find the my gauge changes although I am consistently a loose knitter. If practice would have helped, I’d have been cured long ago.
The one thing I’ve found is that I don’t hesitate to rip out if my project gauge is too far off my swatch. I don’t like to but I do it.
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If it’s a project where gauge is really important it’s a good idea to keep checking the gauge that you’re producing on the actual project, at regular and frequent intervals (I an guilty of not doing this myself, which is insane, because it only takes a few seconds and I could have saved myself literally hours of work sometimes, so I have no rational excuse). 
If it starts to vary then you can focus on knitting a little more snugly or loosely (or in extreme cases even change needles, I suppose–at least, there’s no law that says you can’t).
A gauge swatch doesn’t guarantee anything, it’s just a starting point. We’re human beings not machines, so one shouldn’t expect one’s tension to always be exactly the same, even if the knitter isn’t consciously aware of “doing anything different.”
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Gauge is based on a perfect master knitter, which most of us are not. It helped me a lot to practice. I did stockinette stitch over and over with a small ball of waste yarn. Then I tore it apart and kept doing it over and over. The key is to be consistent, hold the yarn slack, and shorten up on it. I do Continental style. I shorten the yarn to an inch or two from my finger to the work on my needle. Sometimes it helps if I wrap it around my little finger. I check my work frequently and undo it if it’s off then redo.
Sometimes the type of yarn will get gauge off. Sometimes it’s the type of knitting needle. For me, Addi needles slip and give me loose gauge. Maybe buy one pair of different types and see if you like them. Try wood, bamboo, plastic, metal, aluminum, glass, marble, Karbonz. That makes a world of difference. Individual choice. My favs lately are Knitters Pride Zing aluminum needles.
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