Knitting needles effect gauge

KnittingAngel

I seen this, and was surprised how different needle can affectyou gauge. I thought i would share. I hope I have not put this in the wrongplace being that it is more informative than teaching you a new skill. If ihave put this in the wrong place please except my apologies

Needles  made from adifferent material,  can affect bothstitch and row gauge. I was curious how I would knit with my new needle set, soI designed an experiment.began with a ball of 100% wool yarn (Knit Picks Wool of theAndes Worsted) and 4 sets of size 7 needles, all made from different materials:1.     Plastic Resin2.      2. Wooden3.      3. Metal4.      4. Carbon Fiber I knitted up a stockinette swatch (30 sts x 45 rows) witheach needle type, then blocked them all very, very carefully to be sure theyweren't stretchedAfter the swatches dried and kind of mellowed out for a while, I tookcareful gauge measurements. Then I used the results to figure the dimensionsfor an average sized sweater that is 200 sts wide and 150 rows tall.I was shocked!The results really surprised me: if I knitted a sweater with one kind ofneedle versus another, I would have about a 2" variation in either widthor length. That's a big difference!

                               
Login/Register to enlarge

I was also curious about differences in my "flat vs. circular" gauge because I've had trouble with sleeves not matching the sweater they are attached to. So I got to work on a circular swatch with my wooden dpns.
Results? There is a difference, of course. If I knitted my 200 st x 150 row sweater with a circular construction, it would come out 1.5" narrower than if I knitted it flat with the same wooden needles. Surprisingly, the row gauge was unaffected.
So what's the take-away from all this?
While your results would certainly vary from mine, I think it's important to be aware of how your tools can affect your finished objects and to use this knowledge to your advantage:
1. Knit your gauge swatch with the same needles you plan to knit the garment with.
2. Knit circular swatches for circular garments.
3. The more stitches in a row, the more a difference in gauge affects the finished measurements of the garment.
4. If you need to connect a circular-knitted sleeve to a flat-knitted body, make a separate circular gauge swatch. If you knit like I do, you might need to go up a needle size or switch to a needle made from a different material to get the correct gauge.
5. And for goodness sake, make large gauge swatches! (6"+ is a good rule of thumb)

i hope i did not put this in the wrong place
i hope you have found thins informative

thank you

Saltandpepper

Thank you for sharing ! As you said, results will depend for each knitter, but I agree it is handy to know it and each knitter has to experiment ! I only have bamboo and metallic needles, I did noticed that I usually get more stitches per inch with bamboo needles than with metallic needles  with a same yarn - but I never got deeper in the experiment so new things to explore in a deeper way ! Thank you for this well written experiment !

softdough

I don't think this is accurate for everyone or every situation. For example, sometimes when one uses a smooth yarn with smooth metal needles, one would hold everything tighter to keep stitches from dropping, and the grip on the yarn will be tighter leading to tighter gauge.

Yarny

That's crazy, I had no idea! I want to do some test swatches with my crochet hooks now. I wonder material effects it this way, if they're the same mm there should be no difference.

jademonkey

Good information.  Even the needle shape makes a difference, square vs. round.  My knitting is more even looking with square needles.

toomuchreading

Thank you for sharing.  Now I'm glad I use Elizabeth Zimmerman's percentage system to knit my sweaters!

PBJ

Thanks for taking the time to experiment and for sharing the results!

copa46

Thanks for the info. It is always good to know. Incredible experience.

CraftyLouAnna

Interesting study!    Thank you for this information.

Alamom

Thank you!  Great point as something to look out for.

Silverlea

¸.•*´¨`*•.¸¸.•*´¨`*• Useful, thanks! •*´¨`*•.¸¸.•*´¨`*•.¸

karriboo

Very nice
Thank you for sharing

MadCat

Thanks for sharing this information.

ThreadEt

Полезная информация

Melva

Thanks for the information:)

cuteknit

So nice. Thank you for sharing

LilyMaid

very interesting!
Thank you for sharing

fan-tasie

Very nice
Thanks for sharing