This is a video article and here are the links to help you get the most from it:

• Why You’re Frustrated by Gauge and Why That’s Good News is the article I reference in the introduction.
• The Daphne Jumper Pattern is free from RedHeart UK.
• Use the Sloped Bind-off video for that neckline shaping.
• That very cool, very precise, proportional Knitter’s Graph Paper is available HERE and it’s free! I’ve used this resource for years and am so grateful for it. The last few times I downloaded grids I had to change the suffix to .pdf to get it to print properly.
• The More or Less Right Formula explained and a theoretical example of using it.
• The More or Less Right Formula used to calculate a sleeve pick up and shaping.

Here you go! And, as always, let me know what you think and let me know of any questions this brings up for you. In the comments. Below. 😀 So everyone can learn from what you have to say.

In my last article, “Patterns are Guidelines, Not Gospel,” I said that your chance of matching the gauge of a pattern was less than 50%. Now that I’ve been wrestling with this hare-brained notion that debunks common practice and flies in the face everything you’ve ever learned idea for five weeks, I’ve deduced that it’s worse than that. It’s not as bad as the proverbial snowball’s chance in H-E-Double Hockey Sticks, but it’s bad. It’s ugly. It’s OK. You can work with it. And in the end you will be relieved to know that you have not been doing anything wrong, you are right to be frustrated, and there are remedies. But you will need to look at some numbers.

I did some research. This is not because I’m virtuous, but because it’s my idea of goofing around, especially when something is niggling me. In this case, I looked at 20 sweater patterns, some paid, some free, some for babies, some for big guys, some by amateurs, some by famous designers. All the patterns called for worsted weight yarn (between DK and Aran). They all were done in stockinette stitch and the pattern gauges were measured over stockinette. Here are the gauges “required” by the patterns.

I highlighted, with yellow, the gauges that were duplicates. Count them. There are 16 different stitch and row combinations. But here’s the part that can tie a knot in your nose . . .

THESE 20 RECOMMENDED GAUGES DESCRIBE 13 DIFFERENT SHAPES OF STOCKINETTE STITCHES.

“Huh??!!?! “Pardon me?” . . . Let me explain with a story.

Thirty years ago I had a student who was crazy about M & Ms, those little disk-shaped candies.

She wanted to make a white sweater with a big red M & M on the front so she got out a sheet of graph paper and drew out a perfect circle,

 

knit it on her BOND knitting frame using intarsia technique, which took a while, and when she was done, it looked like this

because she had graphed it on regular, square, graph paper and stockinette stitches are rectangles.

Typically, the height of a stockinette stitch is about 70% of it’s width. Here’s a close up of the kind of rectangle you get when your gauge is 5 sts and 7 rows per square inch or 2.5 centimeters:

But when we look at the above set of gauges we see they describe 13 different rectangular shapes from this:

to this:

Here’s the graphic that shows the different height to width ratios of those 20 gauges in numbers in columns E and F.  To get these numbers I simply divided the sts per inch by the rows per inch (sts/rows).

Almost every knitting pattern in existence says something like this:

• “CHANGE NEEDLE SIZE IF NECESSARY TO OBTAIN THE CORRECT GAUGE”
• “US #6 / 4 mm and US #8 / 5 mm (or as req’d to meet gauge)”
• “[always use a needle size that gives you the gauge listed below — every knitter’s gauge is unique]”
• “Adjust needle size if necessary to obtain the correct gauge.”

And because every pattern says something like that, people have come to believe that this is the truth, an undeniable reality, that if you change needles enough, you will get the gauge the pattern calls for.

But that’s not always true. In fact, it’s usually not true.

You could use 42 different sets of needles, the exact same yarn that a pattern calls for, stand on your head and spit sapphires, burn candles to the “Goddess of Pattern Gauge” and STILL NEVER GET THE EXACT GAUGE CALLED FOR BY THE PATTERN. You probably CAN get either the right stitch gauge OR the right row gauge, but it’s the combination that’s treacherous. AND . . .

It won’t get any better for as long as you knit . . . BECAUSE your skill level and years of experience are not the reasons you’ll never get the gauge some patterns demand. Instead, your gauge is based on

• your yarn
• the needles you’re using
• the method you’re using (circular, flat, continental, English, Portuguese etc)
• the pattern stitch you are making
• and the most magical ingredient of all . . . your beautiful, capable hands.

Why this isn’t the end of the world and is actually good news

1. You can’t solve a problem until you admit that it exists. I’m saying this is a problem. Now that you know that, you can take steps to solve it.
2. You can adjust a pattern to fit your personal gauge and it’s not that complicated.
3. I will give you some ways to work around it, but not today (except Sweater 101 which already exists and which is the ultimate workaround). Just stay tuned and  sign up for my newsletter if you haven’t done so already.

Meanwhile, your homework is:

1. Read this article more than once if you need to and study the charts. If you still don’t understand it, comment below to tell me what you don’t get and I’ll try to rephrase it.
2. Comment below to tell me how this jives or doesn’t jive with your experience.
3. Share this article with your knitting groups, online and off. I want to reach as many people as possible on this subject and can only do it with your help. Because I think it’s important. Because I think it will help people graduate from making safe flat things (scarves, cowls, afghans, baby blankets, dish cloths) and start making sweaters. With confidence. With enthusiasm. With joy.

THE END (for now), ch

P. S. CLICK HERE to hop to my favorite link for printable Knitters’ Graph Paper.

Patterns are guidelines, not gospel, and I didn’t pull that idea out of a hat. It comes from  60+ years of knitting experience, 10 of which I spent as the Tuesday Troubleshooter for my local yarn shop. I sorted out 1000s of knitting snarls . . . and guess how many of those involved patterns? Over half of them.

PATTERNS ARE NOT GOSPEL BECAUSE . . .


1) They are riddled with errors. This is nature of the beast. With hundreds of numbers and abbreviations, for which there can be no spell-check, mistakes happen with even the most compulsive of designers, copy editors and typists spending hours working them over with dutiful attention.

Back when I was at the yarn shop (mid-80s to mid-90s) the internet was an infant. Now, at least, you can check websites to see if any “errata” have been corrected for the pattern you’re using. Even then, there may be undocumented errors lurking just under your radar, like crocodiles, ready to snap your patience.

2) They give you bad advice. One of my pet peeves is step-bind-offs. “Bind off 5 sts at the beginning of the next 6 rows,” for example, with no more guidance. Short rows or sloped bind-offs are so much more elegant in this situation. And about grafting the shoulder seams of an adult, long-sleeve sweater? Bad idea.

3) Sometimes you want fewer (or more or bigger) buttons or a different neck edge treatment from that in the pattern. It’s your knitting. It’s OK to change things.

4) Your likelihood of “matching the pattern gauge” perfectly is 50% or less. [2017 note: After more research I conclude that this is closer to 30%. That is, 70% of the time you won’t be able to match the gauge exactly]. That is,  AT LEAST HALF OF  THE TIME YOU WON’T BE ABLE TO MATCH THE GAUGE CALLED FOR IN THE PATTERN no matter how many sets of needles, larger and smaller, that you try. Not because you’re a bad knitter, but because your hands are not the designer’s hands.

This figure I am sort of pulling out of my hat because I haven’t recorded 1000s of samples, but I see evidence to support this conclusion all the time.

**EXHIBIT A:  A few years ago I taught a weekend retreat in which 25 experienced knitters made the same Size-2 sweater with the same yarn and needles, and 13 different gauges. They ended up with 25 sweaters the exact same size because we made them Sweater 101 style where we wrote the patterns to match their personal gauges, but the part I want you to remember is this: SAME YARN + SAME NEEDLES + 25 GOOD KNITTERS = 13 DIFFERENT GAUGES.

**EXHIBIT B:  I just did a quick pattern search on Ravelry for worsted weight patterns (about halfway between DK and Aran weight for my UK friends). I randomly clicked on 20 mostly stockinette sweater patterns and recorded their required gauges. Some of the patterns listed multiple yarns you could use to make the sweater. Others called for one specific yarn. GUESS HOW MANY DIFFERENT RECOMMENDED STOCKINETTE GAUGES I FOUND. YOU WON’T BELIEVE IT. Seriously, guess first and then CLICK HERE to find the answer. (Some of the gauges were close and others were not even close. This cries out for further exploration but not today).

**BOTTOM LINE:  You might never match the designer’s gauge no matter what you do.  And this can be crazy-making unless you learn to adapt patterns to your gauge. It’s not that hard.

REASONS TO USE PATTERNS ANYWAY . . .

1) They’re inspiring. Some designs stun me with their creativity and I want to know how someone did that and why I never thought of it.

2) To support designers. I bought a pattern last week that I may never make but it was ingenious and charming. It’s hard to make a living with a craft business, and for $3.36 I was able to say “Thank you for adding beauty and whimsy to this world. Please continue to create.”

3) They give you good advice. Sometimes a designer will showcase a new-to-me technique in a pattern and explain it well. It’s very cool to learn a new skill in a context where you actually use it.

4) It’s not as much work as starting from scratch. There is only one pattern that I make exactly as written, and that’s Cat Bordhi’s felted moebius basket. I made 2 baby sweaters in the past month from different patterns and I changed everything from construction techniques to neckline treatment to number of buttons, but it was still faster than starting with my own gauge and design because I liked some of the elements of those patterns.

A pattern is your tool, not your master.

Gauge is your tool, not your master.

Once you believe that, your knitting breaks out of its work cubicle and becomes a playground.

What do YOU think about that outlandish opinion?

COLOR ON THE BOND
This educational package is in one ZIP file. You download it, open it up (just double-click on it to unzip it), and this is what you see. The movie is indexed so that you can jump instantly to any skill. The pdf index is printable. You can find what you need in a hurry!

You get the whole package for $14. And you’ll own it forever, even when YouTube and I are ancient history. Wait . . . I’m already kind of ancient . . . but you know what I mean.

YOU CAN BUY IT HERE, AT MY GUMROAD STORE.

I’ve been puttering with the content for next week’s YouTube video for two and a half months and it’s still not written though I have a file full of notes and visuals.

I have a ton of experience with the subject but I wrestle with the same things for every script. How do I structure this program so that it is . . .
1) engaging?
2) the “right” amount of information? (I could go on for hours about it)
3) organized?
4) uses the medium of YouTube in a way that fits how knitters use it?

Because I think most of my programs don’t fit how most people use YouTube. And I’m trying figure out if that’s a problem. And if it is, am I willing to change my approach?

Maybe yes. Maybe no.

I started working with video in 1966 when I studied it at the University of Michigan and early on (1988) I recognized that it was an excellent medium for teaching knitting. That’s when I hired a professional producer and made my first 3 programs (on the BOND knitting frame) that were distributed in the US, UK, and Canada. But they were complete, long-form classes.

Then along came YouTube. It’s only a little over 10-years-old and it has been a game-changer.

1. The process of knitting hasn’t changed
2. Good video production value hasn’t changed
3. How people learn hasn’t changed
4. How people access information has changed.

My educator self is trying to figure out the best way to use this tool and so far I think . . .

1. Most people (including me) go to YouTube to see a single skill DEMONSTRATED, a skill they need at that moment. Heck, I have to consult my own videos on things I don’t use often like a tubular bind-off.
2. Some people (a far fewer number) go to YouTube to take a class or to understand a complete concept.
3. Too many choices (of bind-offs, for example) can be overwhelming and even paralyzing. (Watch Barry Schwartz’s TED talk on too much choice)
4. To demonstrate something is easy. To teach something is hard.
5. I tend to teach rather than demonstrate.
6. Do I need to demonstrate more on YouTube and use a different medium to teach concepts and full classes?

Please share your insights below. Any old thing that pops into your head about how you use YouTube in general. Not just my videos. How you use it to fix a faucet, for example. What helps you? Frustrates you? Do you use it differently for different subjects . . . like sometimes to learn how to make a sweater and sometimes you just want to remember how to do a provisional cast on? How/what did you learn before YouTube?

Of course by the time I get this figured out it will probably have changed. That’s OK. That’s what keeps us young(ish) right?

 

 

 

 

 

Yarn “weight” is different from how you usually define weight.
Here’s a YouTube video that explores it: Understanding Yarn Weight.

And HERE is the downloadable spreadsheet with yarn sizing systems.

It’s always that way isn’t it? There are advantages and disadvantages to almost everything in life  . . . two sides to every coin.

Like winning the lottery. Hurray, you are rich, rich, I tell you!  Qiviut and cashmere, here you come. But 72 people (so far) are whining at you for money including your brother’s widow who knows exactly where your Guilt button is and she’s lying on it. (You never did like her from the get-go.)

Like that mystery virus that landed you in the hospital and swallowed 12 weeks of your everyday life. The one that reminded you to appreciate every moment of your everyday life since then . . . (And FINALLY you got your Advanced Directive carefully crafted, witnessed, copied and in the hands of those who might need it some day which is something only a near-death experience could kick you into gear to do because who wants to figure that stuff out or even acknowledge that it needs to be done? But it’s a good thing. To have it done.)

The Learning Knitting coin has two sides as well, but they look the same . . .

The good news about knitting is “There is no ***RIGHT WAY***.”
The bad news is “There is no ***RIGHT WAY***.”

At least once a week someone asks me, “Cheryl, what’s the correct way to . . .
hold the yarn . . .
bind off the ribbing . . .
pick up along the neck edge . . .
cast on . . .
cable without a needle . . .
etc . . .

And my answer is always the same: “There is no ‘correct’ way that works for everyone in every situation but here’s what I would try . . . And if that doesn’t work you might try . . .”

This idea that there is no right way has come up in my own knitting in the past month. I’m learning how to do Twined Knitting. I’m enjoying sifting through the details of learning a new skill . . . but here’s the rub . . . Z-twist vs S-Twist yarns and which way you wrap them.

There are number of experts (and I have consulted all I can find who are in English) who talk about only one way to do it using the least-available yarn in this country. My question is why can’t we use the other kind of yarn and wrap it the other way? Who sez we can’t and why not?

I’m finding that I’m not the only person asking the question. My conclusion? If it works for you, and you’re happy with the process and result, then it’s right. And don’t let anyone tell you different.

I poke around on Ravelry and other forums to learn what people are having trouble with or questions about (also to check what they’re saying about me). Every once in a while I see someone telling someone else the “right” name for a pattern stitch or the “right” way to do something. And always the remark comes from someone who doesn’t have enough experience to know that the knitting world is bigger than they can imagine.

Not knowing the exact, right, step-by-step safe path, or worse, knowing that there isn’t one, can be scary. And that’s why I tell you to be brave. Because it’s just yarn, no one has ever bled out because of a dropped stitch, and I, for one, would be bored brainless after 70+ years of doing it if I didn’t get to discover something new.

Back in my teaching-high-school-English days, an occasional student would ask, “You know something?” (Or more like, “Yunno sump’n?”)

My answer was always the same: “Not a thing. I’m awed only by the enormity of what I don’t know.”

And I still am.

Because so many of you have been kind enough to ask about her, I wanted to share my correspondence with Beautiful Daughter with you.

EMAIL FROM ME: July 21, 2015: How is your mother’s condition? Your life?

Dear Xxxxx,

I think of you often and wonder how your mother fared over the winter, if she is still alive. And how are you doing with caring for your brother and her?

Are you still in Xxxxx?

Were you able to continue with your studies or have you suspended them for a while? My studio is wonderful and I will start shooting new videos very soon. Thank you again for your generous help in getting it built. The space feels bursting with the generosity of so many people. It sings.

I think of you often, send you a blessing each time, and wonder how you are.

Warm regards,
Cheryl

EMAIL FROM BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTER: August 24, 2015  Re: How is your mother’s condition? Your life?

Hey Cheryl,
Sadly my mom has passed away last month, she couldn’t handle the chemotherapy anymore, so she went downhill fast.
I am still staying in our home but the government have taken over our care and are our guardians now since we are still minors.
Happy to say that i have passed the year in university and have registered my brother in a new school.
I am glad to hear that it went so great for you and your studio, your afghan made a lot of difference during winter and summer.
Best regards.

EMAIL FROM ME: August 24, 2015  Re: How is your mother’s condition? Your life?

Dear Xxxxx,

I’m sorry to hear this news even though I expected it. You must be feeling very sad, tired and a bit lost.

I’m glad to hear that the government has taken over your guardianship and especially happy that you were able to pass the year in university. And I hope your brother thrives in his new school.

I recently finished The Beautiful Daughter Afghan pattern and sent it to everyone on my newsletter list. One woman wrote me to say she had made one for her local hospice, so your gift, and the gift of your mother, lives on, comforting more people.

XXXXX

Here’s a copy of the pattern for those of you who would like it:  ttps://cherylbrunette.gumroad.com/l/FMRZg