Saturday, March 5, 2016

Husband Hat, a.k.a Gauge Hell

I have been slowly driving myself insane trying to knit a hat in "sport-weight" yarn for my husband. He has hinted that he wants something like a watch cap. I am using Brown Sheep Nature-Spun Sport, and started out with a pattern that I had in my Ravelry Queue which looked like a good, basic hat for a man. Problem: no gauge is given for the pattern, so even though I dutifully knitted a gauge swatch, it didn't do any good, because I had nothing to compare it to. Even though the yarn is labeled "sport-weight", it is very thin, and the wraps per inch are well within the fingering-weight range. I was using US#1 (2.5mm) needles, as recommended. All should have been well. I was so confident, I cast on 160 stitches, and knit about 3 rows. I know that rib will shrink it up a bit, but right now, it looks like it will be way too big, and I am tired of making hats that turn out too big. My knitter's spidey-sense is telling me this is TOO MANY STITCHES!!! So, I did a search on Ravelry to see if anyone else commented on this pattern in this regard (or mentioned their gauge) and did not find any. I am just not looking forward to knitting row after row of gray 2X2 rib for hours, only to find that it is the wrong damn size! So, I found this other pattern today, The 8-Trick Pocket Hat, which has a gauge of 12 sts. per 2", which is my gauge. And it has stripes, so I could use another color to break up the monotony. Of course, the recommended yarn is DK, but at least that is closer to sport weight than fingering. And I want to learn the 8 tricks!

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