GorlitsaKnits

I am nearly finished with a cotton tank top for myself, and I want to share how I calculated the body of the sweater. I wanted to add some very subtle shaping and decided that changing my needle size would be the best way to do this. This series of posts will walk you through determining your gauge and creating your own garment with waist shaping.

To begin with, you must swatch. Must. Not optional. And you have to swatch with several needles. I think three different sizes is the bare minumum. Use the size recommended for the yarn, plus one size down and one size up. Of course, if you know yourself to be a tight or loose knitter, adjust your sizes accordingly. Keep in mind that the more different sizes you use at the beginning, the easier it will be to customize your sweater.

The goal is to create a swatch that looks similar to this:

The swatch shown is in stockinette, but you can use any lace or stitch pattern you would like! Start with a garter or seed stitch border, work for at least an inch, then begin your desired stitch pattern. Work a few purl stitches to remind you of the needle size you were working with, and then work for and inch or two before working a purl “break” and switching sizes. Continue the process until you have used all of your desired needle sizes, then work another inch or so in garter or seed stitch.

Next, wash and dry the swatch exactly how you intend to treat the garment. That might mean a trip through the washing machine, or gentle soaking and pin-blocking. Don’t skip this step!

Now you get to measure your gauge. To do this, lay the swatch flat on a table, and lay a ruler flat on the swatch. Place a pin in the fabric between two stitches, and lay the ruler so that this pin lines up with the 0 centimeter mark. Now, without counting stitches or measuring anything, find a spot where the space between two stitches lines up with a mark on the ruler. (See the image below) Don’t worry if the mark doesn’t match up with a full centimeter! Slide a pin in to mark the space.

Carefully measure the distance between the two pins (in this case, 8.4 cm) and then count the stitches between the pins (15 stitches). If you end up with your pin splitting a stitch in half, just count it as a half-stitch!

Repeat this process for each needle size, and create a chart similar to the one below:

To calculate the stitches/cm column, use a calculator to divide the number of stitches by the distance measured. In my example, that would be 15/8.4=1.78571… Write down three numbers after the decimal place, and don’t worry about rounding.

Once you have created this chart, you are half-way to casting on! Next, I’ll walk you through determining how to use your own measurements to customize your sweater.