Knit Gauge Mistakes You're Making ~ What To Do Instead ~ Beginner Knit Tips, Tricks and Tutorials

Everyone, I am going to show you some common gauge mistakes that you are probably making and how to solve them so that your projects are actually the correct size next time. And at the very end, I'm going to give you some interesting tips that you may not know that will also help you get gauge. So let's get going. But first, make sure you like, subscribe, hit the notification bell. I'm going to be doing a whole knit series for beginners, so you don't want to miss out because they're going to have some really interesting things that you may not realize that will make your projects way better as you go. Now let's get to the mistakes. So mistake number one, you make your swatch too small. I know I'm the same way. I want to get started on my project. I don't want to I don't want to waste a lot of my yarn. I want to just quickly find gauge and move on. However, Doing that, you don't necessarily get the actual feel of how the yarn is going to behave like you would on a larger swatch. You really want to give yourself time to get comfortable in the pattern you're working so that you feel like your gauge is going to be reflective of what you're actually going to make. So increasing your swatch, make it at least six by six, at least, you know, you can turn these into washcloths or whatever after you're done, but make it big enough to where you Do you feel comfortable that your gauge is... Completely reflective of what you're going to do when you start your project. Mistake number two, not knitting in the pattern or however gauge was made. You can't knit in stockinette and take gauge if the entire pattern is made in a different type of stitch. Different stitches will behave differently. So that's going to make more sense on another gauge mistake. But knowing that you are going to make your swatch in the pattern that the gauge calls for, that is going to give you the best outcome to match gauge. So mistake number three, you may not have heard this, but border stitches can affect your swatch. What does that mean? You know, you make stockinette, it curls. You want to Prevent that curling. So what do they tell you to do all the time? Put a garter edging on it. Nice and easy, just knitting every row. So they... That's like the go-to. Everyone's like, if you don't want it to curl, put the garter edging on it. I'm going to tell you, do not ever use garter edging again. Why, you ask? Because garter stitches are actually smaller than stockinette and other type stitches. Garter is a very tight weave stitch. So to show this, I've got a swatch made with moss stitch which is alternating knits and purls and that's a more reflective stitch for stockinette but keeps it from curling as well because if you watched my why stitches do what they do you know that doing even amounts of knits and purls keep your stitches from curling because knits and purls are different sizes so So go check out that video to learn more about that, but Here's the exact same swatch, same amount of stitches, same amount of rows, but one is in garter, one is in moss. And as you can see, there is a difference on the width and the height. That garter stitch has shrunk my stockinette. It has made it much more compact. So using my gauge checker that I absolutely love, I'm going to do it down here instead of on the window. We are going to have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven and a half stitches on two I'm going to go down two inches with the garter swatch. The swatch that has the moss stitches, we have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. So I am gaining half a stitch on two inches with the garter stitch. Another thing to illustrate that is this swatch where it has garter on the bottom and nothing on top. You can see it gets wider as it comes up because it's spreading out to what it really wants to be. Okay. Because you're shrinking the rows as well, even if you switch up your swatch and just do garter on top and bottom, you may have the correct row height, but you're still going to have too many stitches per inch. You have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven and a half still. So... Knowing that garter stitch is smaller than a lot of other stitches, it's tighter, don't use it for an edging. It's going to throw off your gauge. You either want to do a balanced stitch like moss, and you can do double moss, you can do whatever you want. Whatever you want. Mosses, you know, knit the purls and purl the knits. Or make your swatch big enough to where you can lay it flat Without and still be able to count enough. So that's, you know, that six inch swatch. You'll have enough to be able to get your gauge. Mistake number four, actually kind of, there's a couple things that can go into this. Not washing your swatch. You are never going to not wash your sweater or your scarf or whatever, your beanie. Why would you not wash your swatch to make sure that it's not going to shrink, grow, whatever it may be? Always take the time, make a swatch, and measure it before you block it, pre-washing, measure it after you block it, after you wash it. So you may not have to actually block it, it might be, you know, an acrylic yarn like this, where once you wash it, it pretty much just goes back to shape, but it may... Change your gauge. It may expand a little, especially if it's a natural fiber like wool. Wool usually grows. It blooms. So you want to make sure that you're washing your swatch. And then the other thing is kind of like let it dry or let it do what it's going to do for you. So if it's a sweater, your sweater is not laying flat all day. It's hanging on your body. If you make that in cotton, You are going to get draped during the day because we know cotton grows. So hang up your swatch, put a little bit of weight on it and see what happens to it. See how much it grows because it may be nice and fitted when you first put it on. But as soon as you go through the day and the weight of the yarn starts happening, it's going to stretch out. So in effect, wash and wear it. So you can do that. Like that, just get a couple, maybe some Like hair, hair band, you know, hair clips or whatever that have a little bit of weight to them and hang your swatch and see what happens. All right, the next mistake, pinning your swatch to make gauge. We've all been guilty of this, trying to block your swatch to the gauge that you're supposed to get. Why is that a problem? Sure, if it's like a wool, maybe it'll stay. Maybe it'll kind of... you know, be that stitch that you're looking for, but most likely it's going to bounce back eventually to what it wants to be. So here I blocked, this is the exact same swatch here that I did, and you can see how much it fits inside of here. I ultra spread this one just to make a point. Look how tight my stitches are here. Then look at this one. Look at how much wider you can see the blocking mat through them. I went from a seven stitch to two inches to now a, let's count this, one, two, three, four, five, pretty much six stitches per two inch. So I have stretched it a whole stitch apart and I'm going to pay when I unpin this or I start trying to make more. My actual project match this gauge. It's not realistic. Don't overpin when you're trying to read your gauge. Don't, you know, if you have to pin it to get it to lay flat, do it where you're not stretching. Like just kind of pull it out just slightly. And, you know, pin in place and don't stretch it at all. Okay, so now you know some major mistakes that can happen. So now you're making your swatch with the moss stitch. You know, you're doing everything correct, but it's still not making gauge. As most people know, if you have too many stitches in your gauge, you're going to go with a bigger needle. If you have too few, you're going to go with a smaller needle. However, what if it's like slightly off? Well, here's another tip that you may not know. Depending on the needles that person used to make gauge can affect your gauge. Wood needles, the yarn will hold better. Then, stainless steel, where it wants to slide right off. So a holding pattern can make the stitches a little bit tighter because you're actually using a little bit more force to move them around, so you might pull on the yarn a little more. The stainless steel might be a little looser because you're just going and they're sliding nice and easy. So if you're close to gauge but not quite there, try changing the actual material of your needles. That can make all the difference. So are there any other gauge tricks that you know? I would love to hear them. Leave them in the comments. Which one was the most helpful for you? Let me know. Be sure to like, subscribe, and hit the notification bell. I am Deja with Knit and Crochet Ever After, and thank you for watching.