The yarn on the product page is a suggestion. The gauge is an agreement. You can change almost everything else, as long as you keep to it.
The gauge decides the measurements
Gauge is how many stitches and rounds you get over 10 cm. It is given in every pattern. On many of my new designs it is 12 stitches × 17 rounds = 10 cm on 7 mm needles.
Every number in the pattern is worked out from it. If you cast on 120 stitches and get 12 stitches over 10 cm, the garment will be 100 cm around. If you get 13 stitches over 10 cm, the same 120 stitches become about 92 cm. One stitch too many over ten centimetres moves you almost a whole size.
So look at the gauge before you look at the yarn name. The new yarn must give the same number of stitches over 10 cm. You can change the needle size to get there. You cannot change the number of stitches over 10 cm.
An example from the shop
Mira Pop - The Sweater has the measurements of Summersky - The Sweater. Summersky is knitted in mohair with 12 stitches over 10 cm. Mira Pop is knitted in Vams, which gives 14. That is why every single number in Mira Pop has been recalculated, so the sweater ends up with the same centimetres.
That is the work you are spared when your yarn matches the gauge in the pattern.
Yardage and number of balls
Yardage is how many metres of yarn there are in the ball, given per 50 g. It is printed on the ball band. Two balls can weigh the same and still have very different lengths. Vams has 83 m per 50 g. Hip Wool has 80 m. Tynn Peer Gynt has 205 m.
How to recalculate the number of balls:
- Find the number of balls for your size in the pattern.
- Multiply by the yardage of the yarn in the pattern. That gives you the number of metres.
- Divide the metres by the yardage of your new yarn.
- Round up to the nearest whole ball.
Mira Pop in M needs 8 balls of Vams. 8 × 83 m is 664 m. If the new yarn has 100 m per 50 g, that is 664 ÷ 100 = 6.64. You buy 7 balls. The 100 metres are only an example.
If several strands are held together, as in Golden Champagne - The Beanie, work out each strand separately. The calculation only holds when the gauge is right.
Mohair, alpaca and smooth wool
The same gauge does not mean two yarns behave the same way in the garment.
Mohair has long hairs that stand out from the strand. The hairs fill the space between the stitches, so the yarn looks thicker than it is. Measure the swatch with the hairs, without pressing them flat. Mohair is also slow to unravel, because the hairs catch on each other.
Alpaca is heavy and has little spring. It does not pull back after it has been stretched. A large garment in alpaca can therefore grow longer after it has been worn for a while.
Smooth wool has spring. It holds its shape and shows every single stitch. In Milk & Honey – The Sweater the whole pattern lies in texture and tone, and the wool brings it out.
If you change from one type to another, the drape changes, even if the measurements are right. A sweater in mohair stands a little away from the body. The same sweater in alpaca hangs.
Knit the swatch
The swatch is the only place you can see whether your yarn keeps the agreement. Gauge depends on the yarn, the needle and your hand. No table can show it in advance.
- Cast on more stitches than the gauge says, so the swatch is wider than 10 cm.
- Knit in the same stitch pattern as the garment, usually stockinette.
- Knit until the swatch is well over 10 cm tall.
- Lay it flat without stretching it.
- Count the stitches over 10 cm in the middle of the swatch, away from the edges.
If you get more stitches than the pattern, go up one needle size. If you get fewer, go down. Knit a new swatch and measure again.
Always Lovable – The Vest mixes cotton, wool and mohair. The pattern says it plainly: all the yarn must knit to the same gauge. That goes for every single yarn you mix in.
If you want to see the techniques, you will find them in Knittipedia.
I always knit my own swatches square, about 15 cm wide and 15 cm tall.
Did you know …
British knitting needles were long measured with the same numbers as steel wire. In the 19th century the needles were made of wire, and the standard sizes followed the wire gauges. That is why a higher number meant a thinner needle. Knitters checked their needles in small plates with holes, such as the Bell gauge, patented in 1847. Only in the 1970s did needles start to be measured in millimetres.
Sources: HipKnitShop, Hip Wool, Sandnes Garn, Tynn Peer Gynt, Ingebretsen's, Rauma Vamsegarn (Vams), Victoria and Albert Museum, Bell gauge needle gauge and Wikipedia, Standard wire gauge.
Anne-Turid