Archive of Thread: Gauge - stitches on various KM Back

3 years ago
 this stocking is 10 and 1/2 in wide by 26 and 1/2 in Long way too big for any child.  I made it on my brother 260 on Tension 7 and though I went down to tension 2 I had 3.75 stitches per inch verses 3.85 on tension 7 the only thing that changed is I had 6.25 rows per inch with tension 7 and at tension too I got 10 rows per inch.

So I thought if I got a 6 mm machine then I hopefully would reduce my stitches and rows by a third since 6 mm is a third less than 9 mm.  I can't make my stocking less needles because of the diagram and I had a hard time finding the chart that would fit on the stocking.  I don't want a stalking the thickness you could make on The standard so does anyone have advice do you have a bulky and a 6 mm and can give me some advice on what kind of gauges you're getting at tension dials settings - I'm using Caron pound yarn.  Thanks, Jan

3 years ago
I don't have enough experience of mid- gauge or bulky machines to comment on their use, but I can say a few things about tension/gauge in general.

The measurement of your swatch is going to depend on several things:  the machine, the yarn, the tension and the stitch pattern.  You cannot always make a big difference by changing just one or 2 elements; for example: very fine yarn won't produce a nice stockinet fabric on a bulky machine; sport weight yarn won't knit at a low tension on a standard gauge machine.  

If you are using a pattern which is written for a particular weight of yarn and type of machine, you will probably have to accept the size that the pattern writer intended.  You MIGHT achieve success by using, say, a finer yarn on a lighter machine, but the proportions might not be right.

If you want to knit anything with a particular yarn on a particular machine there will be a fairly limited range of tension dial settings that will produce a nice fabric.  For example, I knit a lot on a standard gauge machine with Yeoman Cashmilon.  I get a nice stockinet fabric at about Tension 7.  If I turned down to Tension 5 the fabric would be tight and stiff, if I turned up to Tension 9 the fabric would be open and floppy, neither of which would be acceptable.

Jenny

3 years ago
Thank you Jenny for your comments. I've looked at Sue's video about auditioning your yarn that's not what she says but that's essentially what she's doing.  You tried different tensions on your machine with all other things being equal - keeping the same tension on the mast, same yarn, same machine.

As I say I took my Karen pound yarn on my bulky kh260 and turned the tension dial down to 2 (from 7) and the knitted fabric was very stiff - it changed the rope's per inch but not really this stitches per inch.

And hopes to go to a smaller gauge machine in this case the lk150 and get the results I was looking for however I'm finding that while my stitches per inch went up but almost a stitch my rows per inch stayed the same.  I'm finding it extremely hard to knit with a Caron pound on the LK 150 - if anyone is doing this successfully please let me know what you said your attention dial to and your mast attention to.

I have considered going to DK or sport weight yarn but this is a Christmas stocking after all and I didn't want it to be too thin as I'm not sure what kind of things will be placed in the stocking.

So my only other option is to try to find smaller images to put on the stocking.  I'm looking for elephant, soccer ball, army men, raccoon and the Orion constellation.  If anyone has any suggestions I would appreciate it - I figure I can do 20 stitches for the design and maybe 20-30 rows.  If you know of a good book, please let me know this too.  Thanks, Jan

3 years ago
Okay I had this thought the other morning - thank God - I could wrap the image around to the back of the stocking so in some of these charts I was able to do that and and others I was able to reduce them stitch wise.  My tallest chart I am knocked down so now everything is below 56 Rows and that includes some Rows before and after the chart.  I decided to do the cuff with 32 rows instead of 40.  And since I have less cast on stitches my heel and toe should be shorter and I may still keep my foot to be about 4 in but I might be able to reduce that as well I'll just have to look at it as I go. 

So instead of 12.96" (leg length) I now have 8.96".  And the cuff was 3.2" and now 2.56.  The foot length was 4" and it still might be that length.  Heel and toe was 4.48" and now  2.88" and I can make that half that if I pull out two needles each time.  Since the toe and foot hang at an angle it's hard to tell you how much that'll change the length of my stocking until it's finished.  But I can see I've got about a third to a half the size depending on what I'm doing so obviously my stocking should be smaller and still have my chart.

3 years ago
Oh and I forgot to tell you that my stocking was 84 stitches and I've got it down to 54 stitches - with my gauge it was 21.82" - 10.5" folded and now 14.03" or 7" folded.  I just like the stiffness of the Caron pound yarn for a stocking instead of doing DK or sport weight.

I'll upload a picture when I have something to show you.

3 years ago
I started the stocking at noon and I just finished knitting it on the machine at 3:30 so I don't think that's too bad having to pull out needles to do Fairisle for the name, laying yarn in it for intarsia and doing two short row sections for the heel and the toe.  This is the Orion constellation.  The measurements are 7 in across by probably 18 down.  Since I haven't finished the toe I can't tell for sure but I think that's so much better than my elephant stalking which will be doing an upgrade to that here one of these days as I have four more to make that included.

3 years ago
Jan,
This is great!    You re doing such a good job on these stockings!
I'm so glad you worked out the gauge and stitch patterns.

Congrats!

3 years ago
Thanks Sue you've been a big help helping me trying to figure out my problems.  And, yes, I knew it was a gauge issue but I just couldn't see a way around this given the charts I had.  I do like that I thought to wrap around to the back of the stocking.  I hope to have the elephants and soccer ball stockings done so you can see what I mean.

Thanks again Sue for all your help.  Jan

3 years ago
Here's an updated picture I really think it turned out well and yes it's 7 in wide at the leg by 18 in Long  

3 years ago
Here's the latest imagine a white heel a red foot and a white toe and you'll see the whole stocking  

3 years ago
Next sock - I finished the big one for May for the elephants because I'd rather try to get these into the mailbox or UPS or whatever by tomorrow and all I've got is one more to make and it's 5:00 but thankfully UPS doesn't pick up until later in the day so hopefully I've got tomorrow to get it done. I'm showing you both sides of the stocking because this is my workaround since I didn't have enough stitches for the front.    

3 years ago
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