Sunday, November 13, 2011

Perplexed

For my Vodka Gimlet, my gauge is supposed to be 5 st/in, or 20 st/4”.  The pattern recommends a US 7 (4.5mm).  I’ve swatched on 4 needles now (US 4-7) and something is decidedly NOT RIGHT.  See?

imageThat blue line should be kind of diagonal.  Maybe a little curvy… but NOT HILLY. Why am I getting fewer stitches with a US 5 (3.75 mm) than with a US 4 (3.5mm)?  That dip at 18.5 makes no sense to me.

I washed all my swatches the same way.  I’m at a loss.  What should I do now?IMG_0007

5 comments:

  1. I've only got one suggestion, and it's probably something you've already considered. Would changing the type of needles make a difference? I don't know what you usually knit with (bamboo, metal, etc.) but I have size 7 bamboo needles that give me a different gauge compared with my size 7 aluminum needles. I've always attributed it to the difference in the points; the bamboo are duller and have a smaller "point area" so I make my stitches closer to the point and they end up smaller. The metal needles are much sharper and have a longer "point area" (slope?) so I make my stitches further back on the needle and they end up larger. This is probably a real stretch, but I can't think of anything else. Good luck!

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  2. I can't tell you how much I wanted to calculate your variance and maybe a nice linear regression equation when you were working on this graph yesterday, so that you would know exactly how wonky your swatches were.

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  3. I have no idea what you're talking about, Sharon! But if linear regression would help, but by all means, BRING IT ON.

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  4. I'm pretty weirded out by this, too -- yet quite fascinated that you graphed it out this way.

    Clearly, this is all the result of a quantum fluctuation of spacetime.

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  5. This post makes me laugh so much. I'm going to use this graph if I can for a science question :)
    Sharon - totally agree, a regression would help "describe" the data.

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