Monday, April 10, 2006

Bodge Jobs or Screw Row Gauge

Seeing as how some people are having troubles with row gauge I think it might be helpful to give my story as someone who has a gauge of 18.5 x 23. That's right, my row gauge is 5 stitches off, that is a difference that one cannot bodge easily. I've had to sit down and really think about the pattern and even get the calculator out. For the sleeves I decreased the number of rows between increases and did the raglan/circular shaping as written. It was a gamble but somehow I get the appropriate 10.5" for the raglan. Now working on the back I proceeded as per the directions and knitted some extra rows before the raglan shaping so that it matches up with the side seam on the left side. Instead of the written raglan shaping on the back I'm doing the same pattern as the sleeve raglans. For the first three right side rows I decrease, the next right side row I knit. These 8 rows I do 8 times followed by one more decrease and bam, the right length, right number of stitches, and it should match up with the sleeves.

Well, in theory that's how it should work. So far so good, but I'm not quite done with the back yet... At least I'm still having fun.

2 Comments:

At 8:24 PM, Blogger Familia HP said...

That was what I was thinking that I would do . . . knit the back a little longer to match the side seam on the front. However, I then thought: are those seams supposed to be the same length? I will assume so and knit it that way.

Thanks for your post!

 
At 2:40 AM, Blogger Melissa North said...

I wondered about that too since none of the diagrams dictate how long the side seam on the arms are supposed to be. I just keep matching them up side by side to gauge when it's time to do the raglan shaping.

The downside to all this is that my side seams are 11" rather than 9.25". I don't see this as a problem as I like my jackets longer, but if you wanted it to match the pattern more you'd have to work out how to do the circle in fewer rows.

 

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