Final Measurements

Hey Everyone!

While I was working on the first sock of my regal pair of socks, I had remembered something I had learned while working at the studio. 

This tip is: let the garment/item you are knitting shrink up before taking final measurements. 

I.E. the sock I am working on needs to be 5.25 inches from the heel flap to where I will start the toe. Once it measures 5.25 inches while knitting, I let it sit until the next day, then measure it again (it is typically a bit shorter than it was while I was working on it the day before), and then I knit up the remainder I need, before knitting the toe. I make sure it is the right length once it has shrunk to final size (as it is looser while knitting), before moving on. 

While I was working at the studio, we had to check the pieces against the final dimensions and against the other pieces of the same size to ensure consistency. 

Gauging yarn in yardage

Hey Everyone!

My tip for this week, is when you are yarn shopping, make sure you also check the yardage you will need for a project against the yardage per skein of yarn to determine how many skeins you will need. It is better to have a bit of yarn left over than to not have enough. Weights per skein of yarn are a good general guideline, but the yardage you get per weight will vary between yarns.

I figured this out because I barely had any yarn left over from a 16 ounce skein of yarn when I made a size 8 knit for kids sweater, when the guidelines say 14 ounces makes an 8. Then I got looking at the yardage for that brand of yarn, versus what the guidelines say for how many yards you need for an 8, versus another brand that makes a 16 ounce skein of yarn. That is when I tuned in to the fact that the yarn I had used was thicker, so you get fewer yards to the ounce, verses a thinner (yet still 4 ply) yarn from a different brand. So in the future I will just have to remember that I cannot make a size 10 with just one skein of the thicker brand of yarn.

Yardage is also important and useful when you are working with a pattern that you can use different types of yarn with, and they give you how much yarn you will need in yards. Again, I would rather have a bit of yarn left over than run out, and need to scramble to try to find more yarn, and possibly not be able to find the same yarn I had bought, and then not be able to complete my project.