questions - gauge swatch and edging
 

Hi
I'm hoping someone can help clear up some confusion. I have an SK160 and am
now ready to make a sweater. But I have some questions.
I made a tension swatch follwoing the diretions in the naual and took the
measurements. The gauge is 28 st in 10 cm and 40 rows in 10 cm. But when I
use this to try and make a sleeve, the piece seems way too large. for the
size. Are there some tricks to doing this?
Second quesion I have concerns edging. If I use waste yarn and a ravel cord
to start, none of the instructions tell you how to finish off the piece one
the waste warn and ravel cord are removed. So do I transfer those back to
the needle bed and bind off? I guess I have the same question when using
the weaving metho d of cast on.
Thanks in advance.
Nanci

questions - gauge swatch and edging
 

Hi Nanci,

I hope someone more knowledgeable than I am will answer your post, but
I'll share my ignorance for what its worth!

1. I wonder if your swatch was big enough? You need a good inch of
knitting on all sides of your 4" squre you are measuring. And I'm
surprised that you got such a fine gauge, knitting on a midgauge
machine; that's the sort of gauge I would be seeing on my standard
machine. Did you wash and block your swatch before you measured?

2. If it were me, I wouldn't remove the ravel cord and waste yarn
before I finished off the edge. They are there to keep your live
stitches from unraveling, and so I would do a hand-knit or crochet
bindoff, then remove them when the live stitches are all nicely dead.
I'd do the same thing for a cast-on situation.

You can try casting on with an e-wrap or latch-tool cast -on, then you
wouldn't need the waste yarn etc. I like to use it anyway, so I can do
a crochet edging, and someday when I'm a more experienced knitter, I'll
try doing fancier things! But I am just creeping at this stage. Best
wishes!

Peggy in NC

questions - gauge swatch and edging
 

Hi Nanci,

Regarding the tension swatch - I take it you are following a pattern?
If the pattern recommends a tension of 6, I would probably knit a
tension swatch that used tension 5.. (5 and two dots), then two rows in
a contrasting colour, then a bit at T6, 2 rows contrast, T6. , 2 rows
contrast. Wash and block as before. The tension dial controls the
stitch width, the yarn brake tension dial controls the row height.

However, when you knit something on a machine, it will always look wide
and squat - a quick tug in the vertical direction lets the stitches go
back to a more natural shape.

I'm not quite sure what kind of edge you are trying to do. You could
transfer the stitches back to the main bed if you required. Or you
could slip them onto knitting needles, and knit ribs down by hand.

If it's for a jumper welt you could do mock rib - cast on with waste
yarn, transfer every other needle over and push the empty ones to
non-working position, K one row with ravel cord. K 10 rows MT-2, 1 row
T10 (this becomes the fold row), 9 rows MT-2. Pick up the bottom
stitches from the ravel cord, and place them onto the needles that
you'd pushed into NWP. Continue with the sleeve as per the pattern -
you can pull the ravel cord out later, and you should have a mock rib
welt.

The same can be done without doing mock ribbing - after doing the 20
rows, just pick up the bottom stitches and place them onto the needles.
This creates a built-in "hem" as it were.

Hope I've explained it ok!

Regards,

Jane

questions - gauge swatch and edging
 

Hi Jane

Thanks for all of your suggestions. As it turned out, I must have done the
tension swatch incorrectly - at least for number of rows. When I started
sleeve using these measurements, it turned out to be 5 inches too long.
I did another swatch and made sure that I followed the instructions
carfully, and then used those measurements for the sweater. I am happy to
report that I have both sleeves and the front completed and the length looks
much better.

I decided to do a ribbed edging of this sweater. As it is my first I'm
learning many things as I go along - such as the next time, I'll do the
ribbing last - either by hand or transferring the stitched back to the bed.

Again, thank you so much for your suggestions. I do appreciate it.

Nanci
"steel breeze" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi Nanci,

Regarding the tension swatch - I take it you are following a pattern?
If the pattern recommends a tension of 6, I would probably knit a
tension swatch that used tension 5.. (5 and two dots), then two rows in
a contrasting colour, then a bit at T6, 2 rows contrast, T6. , 2 rows
contrast. Wash and block as before. The tension dial controls the
stitch width, the yarn brake tension dial controls the row height.

However, when you knit something on a machine, it will always look wide
and squat - a quick tug in the vertical direction lets the stitches go
back to a more natural shape.

I'm not quite sure what kind of edge you are trying to do. You could
transfer the stitches back to the main bed if you required. Or you
could slip them onto knitting needles, and knit ribs down by hand.

If it's for a jumper welt you could do mock rib - cast on with waste
yarn, transfer every other needle over and push the empty ones to
non-working position, K one row with ravel cord. K 10 rows MT-2, 1 row
T10 (this becomes the fold row), 9 rows MT-2. Pick up the bottom
stitches from the ravel cord, and place them onto the needles that
you'd pushed into NWP. Continue with the sleeve as per the pattern -
you can pull the ravel cord out later, and you should have a mock rib
welt.

The same can be done without doing mock ribbing - after doing the 20
rows, just pick up the bottom stitches and place them onto the needles.
This creates a built-in "hem" as it were.

Hope I've explained it ok!

Regards,

Jane