Whenever I make a Fair Isle hat or mittens, the gauge seems to really tighten up on me causing the piece to come out much smaller than anticipated. I stretch the strands as I knit but it seems that because the items are knit in the round they just come out tighter. When I make larger items such as sweaters I have no problems. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to remedy this?
Sometimes we change our tension when we work on small items. Keep stretching the floats as you say you have been doing but you probably need to go up a needle size or two, whatever it takes to give you the gauge you are suppose to have. I find this happens with me sometimes. Ditto with knitting a baby sweater sleeve in the round. Sometimes I need to use a larger needle to get the same gauge I was getting on the body of the sweater even though both were knit in the round.
Thanks Merigold, I’ll give it a try. I’ll just have to figure out whether it will require going up one or two needle sizes.