When I swatched , I used my new 16" Inox Express US 4 needle that I purchased to knit the sleeves with, and got pleasing fabric at a gauge of 5.5 stitches to the inch. And so I pulled out my Options US 4 tips, attached them to the cable, and put them in my knitting bag with many skeins of my 2-ply Jumper yarn to take with me on my holiday trip. I noticed straight away that the Options 4 was a little larger than the Inox 4, but I figured some slight variation between brands was to be expected.
Finding some quiet time to myself on Thursday night, I sat in my favorite knitting spot at my MIL's house, cranked up the podcasts, and cast on.
After several inches, I began to notice that the body looked rather large. I compared it to a sweater I had brought, one that fits me a little loosely, and it was a little bigger. Hmm. After a few more inches, I pulled out the measuring tape and checked my gauge. Of course, I didn't take a pre-washing gauge on my swatch, so this is apples and oranges, but I was getting 5 stitches to the inch. I finished knitting the body while I decided what to do.
If I had 220 stitches at 5 stitches to the inch, then I was going to get a 44" sweater, when I had planned for a 40" sweater. I decided that I would make it a cardigan, and when I steeked the front, I'd take out 10 stitches, giving me a 42", enough ease to wear over a turtleneck or tee shirt. So I marked my side stitches accordingly (thankfully I hadn't put in any shaping), and recalculated the number of stitches to cast on for the sleeve using a base number of 210.
I knit the first sleeve. It came out a little snug for a sweater that was supposed to be 2" larger than I originally planned, partially because I increased at a slower rate than the pattern specified. Then I attached it to the body of the sweater, and it just looked wrong.
I was so certain that I had knit the body with 5s instead of 4s that I refrained from casting on the second sleeve on the drive back and wasted a couple of hours of perfectly good knitting time.
I just double checked, and I was using 4s all along.
At this point, I'm thinking I'll move one of the phoney seams and reknit the sleeve using the original numbers and the correct rate of increase.
If I eat as much at Christmas as I did over Thanksgiving, I'll be needing a larger sweater anyway.
2 comments:
Sorry to hear your yokey sweater is giving you so many headaches! I'm sure you'll get it all worked out, though.
Yuck.
The sleeve looks far less drapey than the body, it's so odd that the needle brands would be different sizes, but it must be the case. Hmm.
I've also noticed that I knit a different gauges with needles that have a different finish. I'm really inconsistent with slippery needles like the Addi turbos but very even with gripp-ier needles like the Inox grey.
Ok, I don't know if that helps you at all, but better luck soon!
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