the blue blog archives: neglected needles

After taking a wee break for the big birthday, I'm back to my regularly scheduled knitting in front of the tv. Yesterday, while watching a few episodes of Coupling, I finished up the back of the little star sweater and cast on for the front.

Man, am I having a hard time recreating the same gauge. As I was knitting all those tanks, my knitting got tighter and tighter but then I switched to loose, loose, loose for the comfyKami. Now my hands are a little unsure about where this project was in the range between. I generally like to knit tightly because I know that I can produce nice, even stitches that way. When I decide to knit more loosely, I have to concentrate more to maintain that evenness. I have to be sure that with each wrap approximately the same amount of yarn "falls" over the needle and each finished stitch "slips off" the needle but without any pulling or gaping. Loose knitting should be like an exercise for shaping up the control freak in me - learn to relax and let go a little - but it doesn't work so much when I'm trying to match the gauge of something I've already knit. EXACTLY. Aaaaaaaaaa!

posted by alison at 8:34 am | in pipsqueaks

Comments

I'm a coupling fan also.

Posted by: Ruth at July 17, 2003 9:19 AM

Personally, I always knit one way...the "natural" way for me which is pretty loose. Anything else involves just too much effort for this lazy girl!

Embrace your inner control freak...;-)

Posted by: claudia at July 17, 2003 10:39 AM

I might be saying something completely stupid, but you did the first part without paying attention to your gauge - so it was knitted the natural way. How about knitting any swatch, without focusing on the problem, so that your old habits -and your former gauge- come back ?

Posted by: Isabelle at July 17, 2003 2:49 PM

Good idea, Isabelle, but I can't remember what mood I was in gauge-wise when I was knitting the rest. Usually I write these things down (size # needles, knit loosely or whatever), but I forgot to this time. I had knit the baby sweater at a tighter gauge and suspect that I loosened up a little for the bigger version, but who knows anymore! I'm getting pretty close to the same look now while knitting slightly looser than normal for me. So I'm going to try to stick with that.

No idea what will happen to the gauge when I get to the stranding and intarsia parts!!

Posted by: alison at July 17, 2003 3:07 PM