#130 What You Wanted to Know About Gauge (Part 1)

Are you completely confused by gauge?

Don't worry, you're not alone! I turned to my Instagram community again this week to bring you another "what you wanted to know episode" to find out exactly what you need to know about gauge.

Clearly this is a topic that needs clarification. After all, it's the single most important thing to consider when designing or following crochet or knitting patterns. So many questions were submitted that I'm breaking it into two episodes so I can answer as many of your questions about gauge as I can for you!


About The BHooked Podcast
Brittany's primary goal is to inspire you and help you grow in your craft with The BHooked Podcast. Through her own stories and the stories of each special guest, you'll discover tips and tricks to improve your crochet and knitting skills and find inspiration to achieve your hobby goals. When you want to kick back and learn from yarn industry experts, grab some yarn and turn on The BHooked Podcast. There's never a shortage of all things crochet, knitting or yarn.

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Transcript

Brittany 0:00

You're listening to The Be Hooked Podcast, episode 130, with Brittany. Well, hey there. Welcome to episode 130 of the Be Oaked podcast, the place where we love yarn, we love to learn, and we truly believe yarn can do more for us than just make pretty things. Am I right? Well, if you're new to the show, first of all, welcome. My name is Brittany and I'm your host here on the show. And today I have a special treat for you. We're going to do another one of those what you wanted to know episodes because you all went pretty crazy over the first one. In episode 124, I turned to my community on Instagram to see exactly what you wanted to know about fiber. Well, this week, I turned to my Instagram community once again and asked what you wanted to know about gauge. So that's what we're talking about today. If you missed the opportunity to submit a question for today's show from my Instagram stories, don't worry, we'll have more episodes like this in the future. So to get in on those opportunities in the future for more episodes like this one, you'll first need to follow me on Instagram. My handle is at bhooked, that's B-H-O-O-K-E-D. When you follow me, you'll be able to see my stories. You know those little circles at the top of your home feed? Those are stories. So when I'm preparing the next What You Wanted to Know episode, I'll share a story with the topic that we'll be discussing, and you'll see a place for you to submit your question. So when you see me pop up in stories, be on the lookout for those posts and submit your question. As you know, if you're familiar with Instagram, stories are only live for 24 hours, so there's kind of a short window for you to be able to get your questions in. That's why you want to follow me and keep an eye on my stories. Now here's how it works from there. I'll answer as many of those questions that I can cram into one episode, with the exception of this one. There were so many questions that came in for Gage, what you want to know and what you need to know about Gage, that I decided to break it into two episodes so I can answer as many questions as I possibly can. Gauge is sort of a big deal when it comes to following patterns. It can be the difference between a project that fits and one that doesn't. It can also be the difference between having enough yarn or running out mid-project. Bottom line, if you plan to follow patterns any time in the near future, you'll want to soak up as much information as you can about gauge. Before I get to some of your questions, I want to remind you that the show notes can be found at behooked.com slash 130. I will link to any resources I mentioned there so you can just have easy access to them. And of course, if you have any additional questions or perhaps you have tips for others in the community, feel free to leave that in the comments section. That space is really there for you to utilize. You can communicate with one another so that you can communicate with me. And I really love to see what questions you have and what tips you have as well. So you can find all of that on the show notes page. Once again, it's be hooked.com slash 130. All right, first things first, I want to explain what gauge is for the questions that came in from those who just really need all the help they can get. They're brand new to this crochet thing. Maybe they've been doing it for a while, but they just can't get a grasp on gauge and what it means and more importantly, why they should even care. So let's start super basic. Gauge is a measure of stitches and rows per inch, and its entire purpose is to bridge the gap between different crochet styles. I'm not talking about Tunisian crochet versus standard crochet. I'm talking about the unique way that you form your stitches compared to the unique way that I form my stitches or some other designer forms their stitches. Have you ever heard someone say that they crochet really tight or maybe really loose? I know I've said it here several times on the show. I crochet tighter than most people do. That's just how I learned. That's how I am comfortable holding the hook and the needle. I think it sort of stemmed from my perfectionism to some extent. I wanted to make sure every single stitch was as even as possible so I would hold the yarn a little tighter, my tension was tighter, and therefore my stitches are tighter. So what does that mean for me and perhaps for you if you also work your stitches tighter? Well, our stitches are smaller than some other people, right? Think about that. The tighter you're holding the yarn, the more compact the stitches are, the smaller that's going to be. Now on the reverse of that, if you know somebody who works their stitches a little more loose and Those stitches are going to be bigger, they're going to use more yarn, and overall they're gonna measure differently than compared to somebody like me who crochets tighter. We all crochet a little different, and with that comes slight variations in how we crochet the same project. So gauge is really used as a reference point to make sure that you can recreate something that's the same size that I can create. Its sole purpose is to make sure that when you follow a pattern, that it will one, turn out the size the pattern claims, and two, that you have just enough yarn to finish the project. Kind of a big deal, right? Okay, I'm glad we're on the same page. So gauge is measured in stitches, on the horizontal and rows on the vertical. So you've got a vertical measurement and you have a horizontal measurement. The horizontal measurement, always remember, is in stitches. The vertical measurement is always in rows. Now, when you see it in your pattern, it'll look something like this. It might say something like 14 stitches and eight rows equals four inches. Okay, so what on earth does that mean? Well, that means that 14 stitches should measure four inches wide and eight rows should also measure four inches tall. It's pretty basic stuff when you spell it out like this, but really the questions arise when things don't measure up right. So let's go ahead and get into those questions. Our first question comes from Station Owl, who wants to know if the gauge is different, meaning you measure something different in one or both horizontal or vertical measurements than you see printed on the pattern. If the gauge is different, instead of changing the hook size, can you just adjust the size of the garment instead? Now, we are starting off strong and complicated with this one. This question is a great one, but it's also not cut and dry because you could really say yes or no either way here. I want to approach the situation in an objective way so that you can make the best decision for your particular case. So the short answer to this question is yes, you can technically adjust the size of the panels in your garments if your gauge doesn't match to sort of make up the difference. However, this approach won't be the easiest and you might find that making another swatch with a different size hook and just getting the gauge right in the first place will be the easier and probably the safer approach. Since gauge is a factor that pieces together the overall size of the garment, you'll have to make adjustments to every single panel based on your own gauge if you're going rogue. That can be really time consuming and it can also strip you of the confidence that it'll turn out right. One of the greatest things about working a pattern is that you can sort of tune out, right? You just follow the instructions and you're confident that as long as you did your gauge correctly and you measured everything up as it should, ideally that project should go without any question. The size will turn out as you expect, you'll have enough yarn and everything will be perfect. Fine and wonderful. But gauge is really the only thing that gives you that peace of mind. So if you're going rogue and you're sort of throwing that out and you just want to use your own gauge, what you're comfortable working with or what tools you have available, and you're just changing the size of the garment, well, you sort of lose that peace of mind. That being said, I do think this can be a fun exercise for somebody who's trying to improve their designing or their pattern grading skills. But I wouldn't really recommend it unless you have a good grasp on how the garment comes together and how gauge works with that. And if you're really comfortable with the measurements and what you know they need to be. And again, you're also comfortable with maybe having to order more yarn if you don't have enough or having some leftover yarn if you have too much. So yes, you can change the size of your garment, but I would strongly suggest that you just try to alter the gauge first. I think it'll be much easier if you take that approach, unless, of course, you're looking for a challenge. I do think it could be quite fun. Now that's in the more complicated sense, right? When you think of projects based on how complicated they are, garments are pretty high on that scale. So let's look at it in a much more basic sense. Let's say you're working on a scarf, something that's just one really big long rectangle, right? If your gauge doesn't match exactly and you would rather just say, okay, I know this needs to be 10 inches wide. I'm just going to make enough chains and work my first row so that it measures 10 inches wide and I'm good to go from there. It's so much safer and easier to do it in that instance because you just have one simple and basic shape. The sizing isn't too incredibly important. If it's a little wider or a little skinnier, it's not a big deal. But the one thing that you should keep in mind when doing that is of course the yarn requirements. If you're not off by a whole lot, you'll probably be okay. But if you're off by a lot, if you're using a lot more yarn, if you're working more stitches, then you might need more yarn. So just keep that in mind. If you're making any adjustments to the size of your pattern because you don't want to change your gauge, just know that you've sort of taken away that security blanket of the sizing and the yarn requirements, okay? All right, our next question comes from a creative mama who wants to know what to do if you've tried different hooks and you still can't get it right. This is another fun question that doesn't have an incredibly straightforward answer, but I'll do my best to break it down for you here. So if you find yourself in this situation, first ask yourself what part of the gauge is off? Is it the stitch count or the row count? Because you really do need to treat them differently. Now, if the stitch count is off and you can't make it work with different hooks, the first place I would look is your measuring technique. This is one of the things that trips a lot of people up. Their gauge might be perfectly fine, but they could be measuring it incorrectly. So the first piece of advice that I have for you with measuring is to use a gauge tool. If you have one at your disposal, use that because it sort of blocks out all of the other stuff in the background. And it just has a little window and it just makes it easier to count. The other benefit to having a gauge measuring tool like that is that they're usually a rigid measuring device. So they're not like a tape measure or something floppy that can move around on you. Now you don't have to have a gauge tool. You could use a hard ruler, like something that you would send your kids to school with. And some hook sets will even come with just like a short, hard plastic ruler. When you're measuring, make sure that you align the very edge of the first stitch that you're going to count with the line, like the first tick mark in your ruler. That part's really important. Be as exact as you possibly can. I like to stand over top of it too, because sometimes if you're looking at it from a different angle, it can look like it's right on the edge, but it might not actually be. So try to stand right over top of it, place that tick mark right at the edge of the first stitch you wanna count, and then count over from there. Now, the other thing that usually will get people in a twist is not counting the air space in between the stitches, specifically at the end. So let's say you're counting the number of stitches in four inches and you've counted all the way to 14 and that four inch tick mark actually accounts for some of the air space in between that 14th and the 15th stitch. That airspace is still part of your gauge, so you need to factor that into it as well. It's not actually 14 stitches, it's 14 point something. And I know it gets really nitty gritty when you break it down this much, but really to be as accurate as you possibly can, you need to be as detailed as you possibly can. Now, if you're confident in how you've measured, you know you've done all of this correctly, I like to do a little calculating with the swatch that matches the stitch count in my gauge the closest. Remember this, gauge is a factor. That means it's a multiplier. It's not just a one and done kind of deal. So ask yourself these three questions. What's the total project width? How many times does your gauge measurement, you know, that inch number, How many times does that divide into that width? And by how many stitches or fractions of stitches are you off? If you answer those three questions, you can plug them into a really simple equation and do some sort of damage control before you start. So you can actually tell, okay, is this going to be a big, huge deal if I'm off by a half a stitch or a quarter of a stitch? So here's an example. Let's say your total project width is 16 inches. My gauge stitch width is four inches and 16 divided by four is four. That's your multiplier. Your total project width divided by the number of inches that's in your gauge, that's your multiplier. Now let's say you're off by a half a stitch and you measure four stitches per inch, rather than three and a half stitches per inch, which is what you see in your gauge. So 0.5, a half, times four is two. So even though you're only off by a half a stitch, what this means is that if you continue with this gauge, with this slight little variation that you have, your project will be two inches wider. 18 inches rather than 16 inches might be a big deal. If you're talking about a garment, that's one extra inch of ease. It's going to be bigger. But then again, for something like a scarf, if it's two inches wider, it might not make or break that project. Now, it might change the amount of yarn that you have to have in order to finish that, and it probably will, but it's okay, right? It's not gonna make a big, huge difference if your scarf is two inches wider than the pattern says. If you're okay with that, then you could move forward knowing that, okay, I'll probably need more yarn, and it's just gonna be a little wider. but taking it back to those garments or hats or anything where the sizing of a project is really important, two inches can be a really big deal and two inches could be a make or break deal. Here's the bottom line. If you've tried every single crochet hook and you still can't get it right, it's best if you change the tension on your yarn. So we're still on that question of what to do if you've tried different hooks and you still can't get it right. The first thing I would do is do everything you can to possibly get it right. Make sure you're measuring properly. Do a little damage control. See if that little difference that you have is going to be a deal breaker or not. But let's say if you don't meet those requirements, if it is a big deal, if your sizing is off and you still can't create a swatch where your gauge matches, the next thing you'll need to look at is your tension. how tight you're holding the yarn as you're working your stitches. Now, here's a good rule of thumb. If you count fewer stitches per inch, then try holding the yarn a little bit tighter. That's going to make your stitches a little more condensed and you might make up for that difference. Now, if you count more stitches per inch, try holding the yarn a little more loosely. That'll make your stitches a little bit bigger and hopefully match your gauge. So what I would do in this instance is use whichever hook gets you as close as possible to the gauge in your pattern and then use one of these techniques, either holding the yarn tighter if you're counting fewer stitches or holding the yarn a little more loose if you're counting more stitches per inch. When I find myself in this situation, It's hard. It's really difficult to make these adjustments because crocheting stitches is more like muscle memory. After we've done it so many times, we've crocheted thousands and thousands of double crochets or whatever stitch you're working on. It's muscle memory. It's hard to change the way you crochet. And so that's why this isn't really a great scenario, but it is a realistic one. If I need to tighten up on my gauge, which because I crochet so tight, I usually don't have to do this, but I will add an extra wrap around my pinky. I'm one of the people, if you've seen any of my tutorials, I like to wrap my working yarn around my pinky, run it under my middle and ring finger, and then sort of let it flow over top of my index finger on my left hand because I'm right-handed. If I need to tighten up my tension, I'll just make two wraps around my pinky. And that really is the difference that I need. If I'm looking to make my stitches more loose, and this one is definitely more practical for me, I remove that wrap from my pinky so that I'm just letting the yarn flow sort of under my hand as a whole, so under my pinky ring finger and middle finger, and just letting it go over top of my index finger. And the only thing that I am using to control the tension is me pinching my middle finger and my index finger together. Because I've lost that wrap on my pinky, it just naturally makes me hold my tension more loose. So I can usually crochet looser and I can get my gauge to match. For some projects, subtle differences really are less critical. Just know that if you're unable to meet the width part of your gauge measurement, you can't fully depend on the measurements, so like the total size, the finished size of the project, or the yarn requirements. But what if you're not having trouble with the stitch measurement, but rather the row measurement? And after looking at your questions coming through my Instagram stories, I found that several of you are having this problem. You're good with the width measurement, but you're struggling with the row measurement. So here's what I would do in that scenario. The most important takeaway from this point is that the row height portion of your gauge really isn't about hook size at all. It's addressing the way you work your stitches, specifically how high you pull up on your loops as you work each stitch. So if your rows are shorter than the gauge, try pulling up higher on your stitches. And alternatively, if your rows are taller, then try working the stitches closer to the hook and not pulling up so high. Now, I sort of have the worst of both worlds here. I hold the tension on my yarn pretty tight, so my stitches are already pretty condensed, but I also like to work the stitches really close to my hook, so when I do a yarn over and pull through sort of that first motion of the stitch, I'm not pulling up very high at all. In fact, I'm keeping that yarn as close to the hook as possible, and because of that, not only are my stitches more condensed because the tension's tighter, but my rows are more condensed because Because I'm not pulling up as high. I would sort of take this one in strides. If you know that your width measurement is good, you don't need to change your hook size in order to meet this second requirement. What I would recommend is work a few more rows. You could make another swatch too or you could really do it within the same one as long as you know where you made the adjustment and try working your stitches either closer or farther away from the hook. So pulling up higher or not pulling up as much to see if you can make up for whatever difference you're off. If you're off by just a little bit, like a fraction of a row, you'll most likely be able to get it worked out by doing this. But let's say you're off by a whole lot, you're off by a whole row by the time you work four or five or however many rows are within your gauge. Well, in those cases, it might be easier as long as you have the measurement for the piece that you're working on or the panel for your garment, then you could potentially just change your row count or change the number of rows. Now, As with changing any pattern, I would do this with caution. Make sure you're completely comfortable with what you're doing, you fully understand what you're doing, and you have the full picture of what the project is supposed to be, as well as the stitch multiple, so the row multiple that you might be working on. Adjustments like this are much easier to make when you're just using a single stitch or a stitch that doesn't really have a multiple, versus when you're working on a stitch pattern that maybe works across a multiple of 10 rows. That's going to be a lot harder to change and you might find it easier to just change the style of your crocheting a little bit to match that gauge. Now along those lines, New York First wants to know which is more important, your width or your height measurement in terms of gauge. To this, I would have to say the right answer is both because the purpose of matching gauge in the first place is so that you're confident that your project will be the right size and that you'll have enough yarn to finish the project. So that's the right answer. But if you want my honest answer, I would say the width part or the number of stitches per inch. We know that the width part of the gauge affects all with portions of that project. And since it's a factor, making adjustments requires more knowledge of the pattern than you may have or more work than you're willing to put into it. The height portion I think is easier to adjust, especially if you have those target lengths like we were just talking about. So sometimes I'll just look at that target measurement, that length, and work my rows until I meet that amount. but that isn't always the case. So remember, the right answer is that they're both important and you should do everything you possibly can to match them both, width and height, for everything to work out smoothly. But if you're gonna fudge it a little bit, I think you can get away with it a little easier in the height portion of your gauge. Are you still with me here? I know gauge is such an in one ear, out the other ear kind of topic. It's really easy to gloss over. But that's why I'm breaking it into two episodes. I want to make sure I have your full attention so that you can soak it in. And if you have to listen to this episode more than once to let it sink in, will you just go right ahead and do so? So our last question comes from DK Crochets, who wants to know how to make adjustments when it's off from the pattern. This is a wonderful question to end on. Because this is the number one question you have when you first learn about gauge, you've made your swatch, and it's off. Then what? This is the next thing you need to know. So here are your two golden rules for stitch count, and if your stitch count is off from your gauge. If you count more stitches per inch, go up a hook size and make your swatch again. or if you count fewer stitches per inch, go down a hook size and swatch again. Okay, fewer stitches go down, more stitches go up. All right, now here are your two golden rules for row count and if your row count is off. If you count more rows per inch, work your stitches closer to the hook. In other words, don't pull up so high. And if you count fewer rows per inch, pull up a little higher when you work your stitches, okay? So more rows, closer to the hook. Fewer rows, pull up a little higher. Okay, so if you're just completely confused by Gage, or maybe this is the first you're learning of it at all, that last part should be your biggest takeaway from this episode. Because like I said, it's really that first checkpoint. It's the first question you ask when you realize something is wrong. Now, this sure was a lot of information. So let's do a little recap to make sure it all sinks in. First and foremost, gauge isn't something you should overlook because it's the thing that makes sure your project, the thing that you invest hours and hours and lots of money into buying the yarn, it's the only thing that makes sure your project will fit and that you have the right amount of yarn to finish it. We do this because it's something we love, because it calms us, it relaxes us. And there is nothing relaxing about working on a project and it not working out right. When it's too big or it's too small or you don't have enough yarn... You don't need to deal with any of that stuff. Just try to set yourself up for success right at the start. Make sure everything matches so that you really can enjoy the process. That's the whole basis for me saying that yarn does more for us than make pretty things. I mean, yeah, it makes very pretty things and we love to wear the things and gift the things that we make. But I think it's also safe to say that just as much as we enjoy wearing or gifting things, our projects, we enjoy the process, for me personally, even more. So if something like Gage, a potentially confusing topic, is throwing me off, that's not enjoyable anymore. And the process isn't fun anymore. So let's just make a commitment here and now that you will do everything that you can to understand Gage and its importance and you won't overlook it just because you don't understand something about it. There are so many people in this community who are willing to help and who are happy to answer questions, myself included. If you have questions that we haven't covered here or, you know, of course in next week's episode when that one is available, leave your questions on the show notes page, behooked.com slash 130. Myself or somebody in the community will be happy to help you out through this process. All right, still recapping here. The next important takeaway from this episode is that gauge is given in stitches per inch and rows per inch. Many times patterns will list your gauge in four inches. Sometimes you'll see two inches and every now and then you'll see one inch. but really being listed in four inches or bigger, that really is the best practice for grading patterns because in those instances you have a bigger sample size so you know your measurements are more accurate with more certainty, but I don't want to bore you with statistics and how or why all of that works. All you need to know is the maker of that pattern is how to convert that into stitches or rows per one inch. So to do that, you'll take your number of rows or your number of stitches and divide that by your inch measurement. So an example for that, if your gauge is 16 stitches equals four inches, you divide 16 by four, which gives you four. So you should have four stitches per inch. It works the same way for rows as well. In some cases, you won't have a whole number. Don't round up. because that rounding could be the difference between a project that fits and one that doesn't. So just write it out however it is. If it ends up being three and a half stitches per one inch, that's your gauge, friend. Don't round up. We also talked about two golden rules for stitch count, and they are, one, if you count more stitches per inch, go up a hook size and make your swatch again. or if you count fewer stitches per inch, go down a hook size and swatch again. Your two golden rules for row count and the adjustments that you might need to make there are that if you count more rows per inch, you'll work your stitches closer to the hook. And two, if you count fewer rows per inch, just pull up a little higher when you work your stitches. We also talked about what to do if you can't match your gauge. And if you can't seem to match it no matter which hook you use, try changing your tension or the way you're holding the yarn. How tight is the yarn as it comes through your fingers? Hold it tighter if your measurement is too big or loosen up if your measurement is too small. And the final thing I want to recap here is that when it comes to changing the pattern over changing your gauge, Just proceed with caution. It can be done, but you'll be flying solo, and then some of those crutches in the pattern that make you confident in your size and your yarn requirements, they won't be there anymore. With this approach, you're essentially rewriting parts of the pattern, so only tackle this if you're looking to either improve your understanding or if you just like a good challenge. Something like this, of course, will be much simpler with a project like a scarf, so maybe you start there first. All right, I will be back next week with more answers to your gauge questions. So if you haven't subscribed to the show yet and you don't want to miss that one, then do that now. Subscribe on your podcast player now so you don't forget. Thank you so much for tuning in today. And a big thank you to those of you who submitted these questions. This was such a fun episode for me to put together. But aside from that, it's a really needed resource. There are clearly a lot of questions that are circling about gauge. It's clearly a topic that's very fuzzy for a lot of you. And it's my job to try to help you get better and to help you be a better crocheter. Oh yeah, and one last thing before I go. If you enjoyed this style of episode, the what you wanted to know type, and you want to get in on the next one because you've missed submitting your question here, then make sure you follow me on Instagram at BeHooked and then watch for my stories for the next opportunity. Okay, great. Have a wonderful weekend. Bye-bye.