Factors That Affect Knitting Gauge
The gauge of a knitted fabric depends on the pattern of stitches in the fabric, the kind of yarn, the size of knitting needles, and the tension of the individual knitter (i.e., how much yarn he or she allows between stitches).
- For example, ribbing and cable patterns tend to "pull in," giving more stitches over an identical width than stockinette, garter, or seed stitch. Even the same stitch produced in two different ways may produce a different gauge; for example, a swatch of stockinette stitch may not have the same gauge as one knit in reverse stockinette stitch.
- Thicker yarns with less loft generally produce larger stitches than thinner yarns (reducing the number of stitches per width and length).
- Larger knitting needles also produce larger stitches, giving fewer stitches and rows per inch; changing needle size is the best way to control one's own gauge for a given pattern and yarn.
- Finally, the knitter's tension, or how tightly one knits, can affect the gauge significantly. The gauge can even vary within a single garment, typically with beginning knitters; as knitters become more familiar with a stitch pattern, they become more relaxed and make the stitch differently, producing a different gauge.
Sometimes the gauge is deliberately altered within a garment, usually by changing needle size; for example, smaller stitches are often made at the collar, sleeve cuffs, hemline ribbing or pocket edges.
Read more about this topic: Gauge (knitting)
Famous quotes containing the words factors that, factors, affect and/or knitting:
“Language makes it possible for a child to incorporate his parents’ verbal prohibitions, to make them part of himself....We don’t speak of a conscience yet in the child who is just acquiring language, but we can see very clearly how language plays an indispensable role in the formation of conscience. In fact, the moral achievement of man, the whole complex of factors that go into the organization of conscience is very largely based upon language.”
—Selma H. Fraiberg (20th century)
“Language makes it possible for a child to incorporate his parents’ verbal prohibitions, to make them part of himself....We don’t speak of a conscience yet in the child who is just acquiring language, but we can see very clearly how language plays an indispensable role in the formation of conscience. In fact, the moral achievement of man, the whole complex of factors that go into the organization of conscience is very largely based upon language.”
—Selma H. Fraiberg (20th century)
“Men of all professions affect such an air and appearance as to seem to be what they wish to be believed to be—so that one might say the whole world is made up of nothing but appearances.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)
“your antlers like seaweed,
your face like a wolf’s death mask,
your mouth a virgin, your nose a nipple,
your legs muscled up like knitting balls,
your neck mournful as an axe....”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)