The importance of guage

I decided to participate in a KAL for the February Lady Sweater by flitknits.com. I have a bunch of acryllic yarn that I decided to use for it.

Not too long ago I was listening to the manicpurl.com podcast and Chrissy was talking about qauge. She had decided to do a gauge swatch for a sweater and take all her measurements, etc. and she was surprised at good the sweater turns out when you take the time to do a gauge swatch, prep it properly, and take down all your measurements. With this still fresh in my mind I started swatching Saturday.

I swatched on size US 8 (Got 14 stitches for 4 inches), then size US 6 (Got 14.5 stitches for 4 inches) and finally US4 (Got 16 inches for 4 inches). Some told me that I was a loose knitter.

I watched my guage swatch go from loose and drapey, to smaller, dense and kind of stiff.

I asked for input and came to the conclusion that this yarn was not for the "The Lady" I figured that there was just no way that I could be that loose of a knitter. The knitting sure didn't feel loose on Size US 4 and US 5.

On a "Oh for the heck of it" moment I dug a small ball of Cascade 220 that I have and started a small swatch. I got a couple inches into it on US 8 and measured. Guess what? I got 17 inches to 4 inches. So I'm only guessing that if I dropped to a US 7 I would get guage.



So I pondered this for a few moments and got up to go get the original yarn. I compared the yarns side by side. The yarn I origianally swatched with is MUCH thicker than the Cascade 220.

No wonder I wasn't getting gauge. Now I have to decide if I want to continue with the yarn and just try my hand at a smaller size or buy new yarn.

This weekend taught me that not all yarn weights are the same even when they both say that they are the same weight.