Get Gauge (or not)!

Week 21 = In-depth Class Reviews
Day 7 = May 27, 2014

      To continue the in-depth view of both Mom's and my classes and what we learned, here is what I have for you today.

Mom's Class

Daniela Nii – Cables With Color

Once again, a picture’s worth a thousand words.  Who knew there were charts for knitting cables!  Daniela does and that’s why I signed up to take her class!  Having grown up in Switzerland, she informed us that Europe uses charts all the time.  Can’t understand why we weren’t as clued in here in the States.  I have knit many things with cables, but using more than one color is new to me. 

To learn the various cable patterns we were taught today, we spent the whole class knitting…as fast as possible so we could get through them all…not happening!  Daniela shared 4 patterns with us: Mosaic or Slip-Stitch Cable, Stranded Cable, Intarsia Cable and Pinstripe Cable.  I only made it through the first 3 mentioned, but have the charts for all 4, so I’m on my own learning to do the Pinstripe Cable.

          Mosaic or Slip-Stitch Cable                   Stranded Cable

Intarsia Cable (supposedly)

Thank you, Daniela, for broadening my knitting knowledge and showing me how easy it is to create a big change in the look of a garment with different cable work. 

 

Victoria's Class

     The Class: Get Gauge (or not)!

     The Instructor: Nancy Shroyer
     Class Size: 11
     Rating (1 Unhappy - 10 Ecstatic): 9
     Best thing about the class: Learning that my gauge is different at 4" than it is at 6".
     Needs improvement: Not a thing that I can think of.
     The Review: This class was an overload of information, as I expected. We spent a lot of time on figuring out our own gauge on a 24 stitch wide by 4" tall swatch. The swatch was knit with worsted weight yarn on size 8US needles. After we figured our gauge, we decided if we wanted the knit fabric to be looser or tighter. I wanted mine looser and therefore increased my needles to a size 9US. I then figured my gauge for the 2nd swatch. The trick came when we did the 3rd swatch. Nancy had us increase 10 stitches so that we had a swatch about 6" wide. Here is where the trick comes in: if your gauge changes significantly between 4" and 6," guess what... a 4" gauge is not big enough when you swatch. To show you what I mean, here are the measurements for the 3 swatches that I knit:

• 8US 4" swatch: 4.84 stitches per inch wide by 6.4 rows per inch tall
• 9US 4" swatch: 4.4 stitches per inch wide by 6.6 rows per inch tall
• 9US 6" swatch: 4.36 stitches per inch wide by 6.0 rows per inch tall

     So, seeing the information above, mainly the huge difference in rows per inch, I now know that I can not get away with the minimum 4" swatch most yarn companies list on their labels. We also learned about the qualities of yarns based on the number of ply's.

     I am very happy with the amount of material that I learned. Plus, I will be comfortable using many of the items learned on my own. The class size of 11 students made for a very personal experience. There was a very informative handout, but the materials required for the class were all correct. 

 Knitting question of the day

Have you ever checked your gauge at 4" and 6"? 

Gauge Knitting,

Victoria