Hi, I'm Debbie, and I'm very excited to meet you folks. This is my first knit-along, and such a nice one to start with! I just got my Calmer the other day, in the now-discontinued "Jewel" color, which I love (a deep, fuschia/magenta kind of color). I'm having trouble with my swatch, though, too. I tend to knit loosely, so I immediately started with #6 bamboo needles, and even so, my swatch was 4.25" inches instead of 4". The Denise needles (still in #6) came closer on my third swatch. I'm trying to decide--if I knit the XS size, will the sweater come out about right? (grin) It doesn't help that I never really can decide which size to knit--precise measurements never seem to help me fit my sweaters properly. Different amounts of ease, different types of yarn--it all comes down to guesswork for me--math skills do me no good at all. The lack of precision drives me moderately nuts, but what can you do? I'm working on that Elf** sweater too, on size 2 needles to get THAT anywhere near the right gauge. I ultimately won't know if the sweater's going to fit until I can actually try it on. Hmmm . . . I wonder if it's possible to knit Audrey from the top down?? (grin) I am going to knit the front and back together in circles, though, to save some extra stitching. I'm looking forward to trying Tiffany's Audrey Dart, too (the knitting part, not so much the cocktail, though, yum.) Anyway, I'm excited to be part of the group.
--Deb B
Posted by DebB at April 14, 2004 05:00 PMWelcome, Deb! And welcome to our quandaries about size, too (see my earlier post and Sharlene's of today). I'm still waiting for somebody to give some feedback about their size experience.
I have the opposite problem you have -- I knit too tightly -- but when I got gauge on the #9 Denises and cast on my Audrey in size 36 (because that's the fullest part of my bust size, even though I wear a size 34C bra) it just seemed like it was going to be too large and the stitches seemed too loose to me. Gauge, schmage. Quandaries, quandaries!
Posted by: Norma at April 15, 2004 06:58 PM