Hello Everyone:
I'm getting ready to start Audrey (so glad I'm not the only late starter!) and have been making test swatches in ribbing to try to get my skills up to par. I haven't received my copy of Rowan #35 yet, but my Calmer did make it last night. It's even softer than I imagined it would be.
Since I'm a relatively new knitter, I really just wanted to get used to knitting ribs and measuring my gauge against a pattern for which I already had the yarn and pattern. What I'm finding is a little perplexing, and I'm hoping that some of you more experienced knitters can help.
The ribbed swatches are so elastic that I can get just about any gauge measurement I want out of them. (It's a p2, k1 rib in a light cotton yarn.) I did about 5" x 5" swatches on #5 and #6 needles, and both seemed to measure in at 4.5-5 sts/inch. The needles were both Denise tips on the same length of cord, so that can't be right, can it? How do you measure a ribbed swatch reliably?
Thanks in advance for any tips that come my way! Hopefully, I will have some real Audrey progress to report soon. :o)
PS --I hope this post isn't outside the scope of the Audrey a-long. I don't think so since I'm trying to figure this out so I can start the project, but if it is, my apologies!
Posted by Christina at June 2, 2004 04:19 PMHi Christina,
Glad to hear you're about to start! I don't have my Rowan magazine with me, but from what I recall, the gauge that they specify for the pattern is in stockinette stitch (I believe it's 21 stitches and 30 rows to 4 inches but you'll want to double-check that)and then once you've determined the correct needles, you knit the pattern in rib. This should solve your dilemna as you certainly can get the same gauge in a number of needle sizes with rib depending on how much you stretch it! Hope this helps!
Hi Christina,
The gauge for Audrey is actually measured over stockinette, which is a lot easier to measure. It's 21 stitches/30 rows over 10 cm. The row count is important because the increases and decreases throughout the body of the sweater are based on row count, not by in/cm (so it doesn't say, "knit for 3 inches. ..", it says, "knit 8 rows. . ."). They suggest size 8s US, but our Audrey A-longers are using whatever it takes to get gauge. I'm using 7s myself. Hope this helps!
Thank you both so much for allaying my worries about that! My Rowan should come in any day now, but I'm going to start swatching with the Calmer to get a feel for it.
Posted by: Christina at June 3, 2004 11:07 AM