Guage Question

#1

Does anyone else have this problem? :

I was going to start my first sweater using Tahki Cotton Classic - the label recommends size 6 needles to get 5 stitch to an inch - the pattern suggests size 5, but the guage is 5 stitches to an inch -

my problem is that if I use size 6 needles, I get about 6.5 stitches to an inch - even on size 8 needles I’m getting about 5.5 stitches - and the resulting knit fabirc is very open, which isn’t really how I want my sweater to look - so it seems like if I go to size 9 the fabric is going to look really bad, but I’ll have the right guage …

so is it just that I knit tight? or is there something else going on?
this tends to happen to me a lot where I can never match the guage with the specified needles, but worse, I usually have to go up about 3-4 needles sizes …

anyone else have any thoughts?

#2

Sounds to me like you just knit quite tight. This is not uncommon, I have the same problem. Here is a good article with tips on how to knit looser and it points out some things that us tight knitters probably do without even realizing it, things that CAN be fixed fortunately.

http://knitty.com/ISSUEspring05/FEATloosenup.html

Hope this helps.

#3

You probably are a tight knitter. I generally have to go up a needle size, too.

You could make a larger size sweater using the gauge you get.

#4

What about knitting two strands together, what kind of gauge does that get you? Unfortunately that would double the cost of your project though. :thinking:

#5

Wow - thanks knitqueen AND Ingrid for such quick responses -

the article was great - I’m definitely going to try to make the change, think of all the money I could potentially save! (and I say potentially because I’ll just use it to buy more yarn)

and Ingrid, I was in the middle of thinking about how I could reinvent the pattern for a Medium size sweater based on my new gauge, but your idea is a great one - I would have never thought of that!

again, thanks a bunch!

now to re-teach myself how to knit …

Kristen, I thought about that too … but I think that might put me somewhere in the middle … and the added cost …