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[viktorcello]

I'll have to take a picture and post it, but I made the baby pea pod sweater recently. It was my first try at a real sweater/cardigan and it turned out WAY bigger than I meant it to. No, I didn't check gague. I hate the idea of wasting time doing that, and figured that any size would eventually fit a baby. I DO know that if I want to make

Comments

[normalee]

Unfortunately I think the answer is gauge. Stitches aren't square and depending on tension and needle size the ratio of height to width can change a lot. The pattern designer made their pattern based on a certain guage not only to make it be the right size to fit a certain size person but based on the height and width of the stitches so that they line up when you make seams.

Sorry... do a guage swatch. It takes a lot less time to do a guage swatch than try to make things fit after making all the pieces.

[viktorcello]

What I still don't understand, though, is why, when I made the sleeves with the same needles, yarn, and tension as the rest of the sweater, they didn't fit in the armholes. I followed the directions exactly. I'd think that even if I'd checked gauge, this would have happened...

[alphabetically]

Because the gauge is more than just stitches. As others have pointed out, it indicates how many rows as well. If your ratio of stitches/row was not the same as the pattern required, something like an armhole won't line up properly.

[viktorcello]

Thank you. I think I have learned my lesson!

[emmacrew]

The width of your sleeve depends on your stitch gauge. Depth of an armhole often depends on a measurement in inches. If you make your armhole the same number of inches deep as the deisgner, but your sleeve isn't the same width (because your stitch gauge is different), then the sleeve isn't going to fit right.

[viktorcello]

I guess I'm still a bit confused because I didn't knit anything in the round or anything; it was all flat. Would stitch gauge still be off even if everything was knit flat? I suppose it could be, but my mind is not wrapping around how/why yet.

Thank you!

I always think of you as supersmartawesomeknitterlady, so thanks for commenting. :)

[emmacrew]

Yeah, it doesn't have to be round vs. flat. If you have one piece that gets its width depending on stitch gauge (your sleeve) that has to be connected to a piece that gets its length depending on something else (I forget if this pattern has a "work until piece measures X inches" or specifies a number of rows to work), if the proportions don't match, then it won't sew up well