Gauge and Tension

This week had me working on yet another swatch in the quest for the elusive "gauge" and settling on a yarn to use for the submission swatches.  

Greenland is a superwash, and while delightfully bouncy and a joy to knit with (I can hardly wait to make a sweater out of it), it just doesn't block very well.  Oh, you can soak it, pin it out, steam it, and it looks great.  Unpin that baby, and it bounces right back where you started from.  Nope, I need something I can block into submission.

Cascade 220 and Lion Fisherman were neck-and-neck in the running for a bit.  I love both of them, although the Fisherman is a bit thinner than 220.  In the end, by the time I got a nice gauge in stockinette, they both looked a bit thin.

After looking at the samples, I settled on the Paton's Classic Wool; it's nice and round which means it fills out the stitches well, it has a bit of bounce but not so much that it can't be blocked flat, and on US 7 straights it gives me near perfect gauge of 19 stitches and 25 rows over 4 inches.   The Yarn Council says worsted should be 16-20 stitches over 4 inches, and the ball band says 20 stitches and 26 rows.

The next battle was (and still is, to some extent) my tension.  Here's the latest swatch:

I tried several different methods of knitting on this swatch: Continental ("picking"), English ("throwing"), Combination ('some of each"), purling back backwards, various tensioning of the yarn through my fingers, and anything else I ran across.  What I found is that my usual Continental method gave me the best result; that's what's on the bottom third of the swatch above.  It shows much better on the back side:

From the bottom up:  about 1/3 way up inside the blue is my usual Continental; the middle 1/3 inside the blue is my English; the top 1/3 is my Combination (Continental knit and English purl).  The bit above the blue is pure crap; that's where I tried purling back backwards.  What I learned was not to do that last bit.

I also tried various methods of selvages.  The Masters does not allow my favorite: slipping the first stitch of each row.  Of course, I love it precisely for the reason they don't allow it: It hides all manner of tension problems.

Here's where I started: terrible tension and stitches of every size imaginable and it rolls to the backside even after blocking.

I tried making the last stitch very tight, turning, and making the first stitch loose; hoping they would even each other out as some knitters said they would.  For me, not so much; although I could get the selvage to face front and lay down with blocking.

I tried throwing the first and last stitches.  Yeah, that didn't work, either. And it rolled to the back, too.

Last, I tried wrapping the yarn clockwise for the first and last purl stitch, the knitting through the back loop on those two.  Still not great, but I think with a little practice, I can get a pretty good looking edge out of this one.  It takes some concentration (after mumble, mumble number of years wrapping yarn counter-clockwise) to remember to bring the yarn UNDER the needle instead of over to purl.

They say practice makes perfect.  I think it should be "Perfect practice makes perfect."  Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got some practicing to do.

Gauge and blocking

Last time I blocked the swatches, I gave them a soak in warm water, squeezed them dry in a towel, and gently patted them out into shape.  They were nice and flat, mostly square, and all were within the gauge needed for worsted weight as required for Level 1 of the TKGA Masters Program.  

I wanted to see how the swatches looked after a more involved blocking, and to see how the stitch and row gauge was affected, if at all.  So this time, I opted for a foam pad, a ruler, a square, lots of pins, and a spray bottle of warm water.

If you don't have a set of  these foam mats to block knitting on, get to Lowe's and buy a pack!  They are usually under $20 for a set of 8; each tile is 2 feet square, and about 1/2 inch thick - deep enough to really hold pins for straight edges or points of lace items.  A single tile is big enough to block small pieces, or you can interlock several to block larger things like sweaters, shawls, and scarves.

I carefully blocked each of my swatches to 5 inches square, except for the Cascade Greenland.  It was the smallest of the swatches and stretching it out to 5 inches was just too much so I pulled it only a bit to hit 4 1/2 inches on all sides.

After the swatches were pinned out dry, and I was satisfied that all the edges were straight and the corners square (I used the old builders' trick of measuring diagonally; if it's the same both ways, then it's square and not a parallelogram), I sprayed them liberally with warm water, let them soak up the moisture for about 10 minutes or so, then gently blotted up the excess with a clean, white towel.

And I was generous with the pins; generally I put them on every other stitch, except for the Greenland swatch, which didn't need as many so it got every 3rd stitch pinned.

I left them to dry from Saturday morning until Sunday evening.  Then I unpinned them and left them alone to relax until this evening (Tuesday).  I re-measured the gauge and here are the befores and afters:

• Paton's Classic, 20 stitches by 38 rows; 19 stitches by 36 rows
• Lion Fisherman, 20 stitches by 40 rows; 19 stitches by 39 rows
• Cascade 220, 19 stitches by 34 rows; 18 stitches by 35 rows
• Cascade Greenland, 20 stitches by 38 rows; 20 stitches by 38 rows

All still within the worsted weight guidelines, but with very small changes in all of them, except the Greenland.  The drape and hand of the fabrics is about the same, although I do think the yarns have bloomed a bit more, except for Greenland again.  Because of the high twist, it hasn't gotten the nearly fuzzy feel of the other yarns, although the softness and drape of it has vastly improved with the second blocking.  And the biggest difference in the swatches is how they look: the stitches and rows are straighter, everything is much better aligned after being pinned and blocked, the edges are crisper and neater.  

None of these swatches will be in my final submission, but they've taught me a lot about gauge, how these yarns feel to knit with, how to block them, and how they react to blocking.  I still don't know which one will be the final yarn I use for my submission, or if I'll use different yarns for different swatches for different reasons.  

In fact, I don't think I'm ready to start knitting swatches for the submission yet.  One of the requirements is a report on caring for hand knits, including blocking, and I've decided to tackle that before knitting any of the swatches.  I see research in my future; lots and lots of research.  And possibly more swatches to block.

Gauge

The Instructions for TKGA Level 1 require that Swatches 1, 2, 3, and 14 all use the same yarn and needles. These are also the only ones that require a calculation of gauge, both stitch and row.  I initially started to knit Swatch 1, and progressing through to the end.  However, Swatch 1 has 2x2 ribbing with garter stitch, Swatch 2 has 1x1 ribbing with stockinette, and Swatch 3 has a cable.  That means gauge is more difficult to measure in those swatches.  But Swatch 3 is only seed stitch; while more dense than garter or stockinette, it is easier to measure gauge, so I decided to start there.

I gathered some basic yarns:  Paton's Classic Wool, Lion Brand Fisherman,  Cascade 220, and Cascade Greenland.  A circular needle in US7 (I used my Knitter's Pride interchangeable), some measuring tools, and I was off the the races.

I grabbed my needles and that Fisherman yarn, and dived right in.  After all, seed stitch is easy, right?  It's just knit and purl, over an over; piece of cake!.  Well, the first discovery is that I really sucked at seed stitch. My edges (which must be worked, no slipping the first stitch) were WAY too uneven, my knits too tight, my purls too loose, and my finished swatch was too wonky.  

So, I ripped it out and started again.  And again.  And again.  Until I FINALLY got a swatch that didn't look like it had been made by a Neanderthal wearing gloves.  No offense to Neanderthals intended.

It's not a great swatch, but one I can block into looking a little better.  So, I moved on to making swatches out of the other three yarns.  And here's were another discovery smacks me upside the head.  Take a look at these babies:

Clockwise from top left:  Paton's Classic, Lion Fisherman,Cascade 220, and Cascade Greenland.  (Click on the picture to embiggen.)  All with the exact same needles, all with 25 stitches cast on with long tail, all knitted for 4 1/2 inches (not counting cast on and bind off), and all cast off in pattern.  And they were all blocked the same way, at the same time; soaked together in warm water with a smidgen of dish soap, rinsed, pressed in a towel to remove the water, and patted out on a terry towel to dry overnight. 

But look at the difference in sizes; no two are the same height or width.  The only thing different in these swatches is the yarn itself.  The instructions call for the ends to be woven in, but I've left them out here so you can see the difference in the yarns.  Each has a different number of plies, different amount of twist, and while all are listed as "worsted" weight yarns, they are varying thicknesses.  But what about stitch and row gauge; how do they measure up against each other?

As called for in the TKGA Instructions, I used some contrasting lace weight yarn to mark the area to be measured.  I ran it loosely between rows and stitches, and use the TKGA method for calculating gauge: measure to the nearest 1/8 inch between the marking threads (mine conveniently all fell on 1/4 marks), converting to decimals; then count the stitches; divide the stitches by the inches (do not round off); and multiply by 4, rounding down to the nearest whole number.  And here's where it got interesting:

• Paton's Classic, 20 stitches by 38 rows
• Lion Fisherman, 20 stitches by 40 rows
• Cascade 220, 19 stitches by 34 rows
• Cascade Greenland, 20 stitches by 38 rows

The yarn weight, the needles, n the stitch gauge are all well within the Craft Yarn Council of America's guidelines  for Standard Yarn Weight System under medium or worsted weight yarns.

Still, there are those difference in sizes, as well as differences in the drape or "hand" of the fabrics.  Fisherman and 220 are quite drapey, Paton's is a little less so, and Greenland is quite dense.  So even though I have "gotten gauge" on my swatches, what if I was knitting a garment?  How would I manage the difference in size caused by the different yarns? By blocking to schematic size.  And that will be for the next blog post.