Flutterby

A few months back, I got the flutterby pattern as a present. I looked at it, I looked at my calender and saw that christmas was coming up, and I thought to myself; "Yeah, I can knit that during my vacation!" I was so delusional that I even ordered the yarn and had it sent to my parents address, so it would be there waiting for me when I arrived. When the holidays actually came, several problems were quickly made obvious to me. The largest of them being the number off things and people I wanted to see while I was there, measured against the amount of time I had, and the degree to which drinking socially and knitting mix. (Which is, zero. Don't try it.)

The other problem, closer to most knitters hearts, was gauge. No matter what needles I tried, I could not get the correct gauge with the yarn I had chosen. (LOFT ). The closest I got was on these tiny uber size 0 needles, and when I cast on the recommended 72 stitches and started the ribbing, it was much much too big. Unable to go down to a smaller size needle, I opted to decrease my stitches to 52. After that the ribbing looked more reasonable and I finished that I started on the color work. It's probably obvious, but your gauge in sts will be drastically different from your color-work gauge, and my nice-fitting ribbing started to take on a drastic cone shape as my color work pulled and pinched everything together so tightly, that I couldn't even pull the whole thing over my knuckles, much less get it around my wrist.

ripping back and switching up to larger needles (0US ) for the color-work helped, but I think I'm going to rip back again and try it on 1s or even 2s.

I'm already resigned to the fact that these mittens are going to end up either too big, or too small, possible both, before I finish them.

Fists of Gauge

Hello blog,

Once again my nemesis, gauge, has foiled my knitting plans. And I'm still sitting here scratching my head as to how. In july I knit the pattern treads, Bernat satin, US 2 5 1/2 sitches to 1" gauge. The gloves fit....like you'd expect, all snug like except the tread pattern was maybe a smidge t0o long in the hand section.....but they were the right size everywhere else. My brother wanted a pair and so now.... I'm knitting the same pattern, same yarn, same plastic double pointed needles..... and you guessed it.

Noticeably bigger. Roomier. But this is where gauge has really blown my mind....when I measure it, I get the same gauge as my other pair. 5 1/2 stitches to 1". Now, I know that I'm not a math person. I'm so far from being a math person that even reading a ruler is sometimes out of my range of ability....... But seriously? No matter how many times I double-check, I still get the same gauge on both gloves, the gloves are still significantly different sizes, and I'm *still* scratching my head. I've checked over the pattern, I've cast on the right number of stitches, I'm doing everything correctly...... I just don't understand how this is possible.

In circumstances like these, the only option is to go to another knitter for advice. My knitting informant also checked my gauge, and she says that there is actually a 1/2

stitch difference between the two gauges....... which seems like a really inconsequential difference until you try the two gloves on.

Nemesis, you may have won this time, but I promise you; My day will come.