…Stefanie Japel Knits…

Ok, so I’m working on a big new project. In the course of all of the planning, pattern-writing, and yarn-ordering, a question arose.

Why is it that some yarn companies list the stitch gauge on the ball band and omit the row gauge?

And while that question may really be unanswerable, it made me wonder whether there’s a formula that I could use to work out the row gauge (or at least a ballpark expectation of row gauge) from the stitch gauge.

One of the patterns that I’m working on will use a chunky yarn with a gauge of 3.5 sts / 5 rows / inch. I’m shopping for yarns online and would like to just make sure that the yarn that I order is perfect for what I want to do. Without having it here to swatch, I’d like to be able to do some quick calculations to double check.

When planning raglan sweaters from the top, the sweater grows in width at the same time as it grows in length. As I’m adding stitches to the chest I’m also adding rows to the armhole, and I need to keep track of both to make sure that when the sweater reaches my goal bust measurement the armholes aren’t too long or too short. So, for me, the row gauge is just as important as the stitch gauge.

This is where my science brain kicks in. I know that I’m wrapping a yarn of a given diameter around a needle of a given circumference. We can assume that the yarn is approximately the same diameter along its length, and that the same could be said for the needle. (We’re not talking funky fuzzy things or thick-and-thin things, just regular old yarns.) We also assume that we’re configuring the yarn in the same manner each time we perform a stitch. (We are working the gauge swatch in stockinette, not in a fancy stitch pattern.) All that being true, it *should* be true that the width of each stitch will always be some proportion of its height AND that that proportion is the same, regardless of diameter of yarn or circumference of needle. (Again, assuming that diameter of yarn and circumference of needle remain consistent over their lengths.)

I decided to look at a few common examples.

Mission Falls puts their stitch and row gauges right in the name of their most popular yarn: 1824. They expect 18 stitches and 24 rows in 4 inches.

If you divide 24 by 18, you get 1.333.

Another common gauge is 20 sts in 28 rows (or 5 sts / 7 rows / inch) Dividing 7 by 5 gets you 1.4.

I did the same calculation for a LOT of stitch and row gauges, and it turns out that they are proportionate!

You get approximately 1.4 rows for every 1 stitch!

My friend Alexandra the Tech Editor sent me a tweet confirming it! We are both officially math geeks, though she is much more proficient than I (she tweeted me with the 1.4 even before I’d come to the end of my testing!)

SO, if you’re ever shopping for yarn or patterns and confounded by the lack of row gauge…multiply the stitch gauge by 1.4 and you’ve got it.

A few months ago, while at the local Renaissance Fair(e?) I scored a jumbo-sized zipper plastic bag full of dried lavender buds for only $15 from Frolicking Deer Farms. It’s been sitting on my shelf for all this time, open, but not really living up to its potential.

Today, I decided to take the time to make some sachets. I like to do things assembly-line-style, because to me it seems to make the process go faster. I do this with everything. I’ll unload ALL of the groceries up to the porch, then haul ALL of them into the house and into the kitchen rather than taking each load all the way in. I don’t know, to me it FEELs more efficient even if it’s not.

SO…here’s my method for assembly-line-style lavender sachets.

You’ll need:

Lavender
Musiln or other fabric
Sewing machine
Pinking shears

The first thing I did was to fold a length of muslin in half. It doesn’t matter how much fabric you have, just so that you have two layers to sew together to make little bags.

Then, I stitched out a little grid. I used my machine’s embroidery function to spell out the word “Lavender” and then added some leaves and flowers. You could do this just as well with a straight or zig-zag stitch.

The key is to create two rows of horizontal stitching between each row of sachets, so that you can cut them apart and have all finished edges. (Each row of vertical stitching here becomes the bottom of a bag.)

Now cut each section using pinking shears (pinking shears keep the fabric from unraveling at the edges), so that you have 3 finished edges and one open end.

Fill each sachet with lavender, leaving about 3/4 inch at the top edge, so that you have enough room to finish the final edge.

Finish the final edge, trim raw edge using pinking shears, and you’re done. Scrunch them around in your hands a little bit to release the scent.

This is as much as I’ve gotten done in the last month! I already knit one version of this shawl, but needed to work on the lace chart a bit.
So this summery version is in Handmaiden Seasilk from Jimmy Beans.

The project bag is a Christmas gift from my BIL Aaron…you can buy one at www.etsy.com/shop/FruitLoopDesigns

This is the shawlette that I worked on for my example project in the first run of my Design Your Own Shawl class. I chose a stitch pattern that turned out to be directional:

So that, instead of appearing to be mirrored across the center increase line, it looks slightly rotated. This makes the candle flames point in two different directions on either side of the increase line:

The red lines highlight the way that each candle flame’s tail swoops across the shawl. And…you can see that they swoop in different directions.It’s a really subtle difference, but I can tell…and it’s been bugging the HECK out of me!

SO…I had to fix it by altering the lace chart so that instead of doing exactly the same thing in each section, I do the exact opposite.

For example, if one row of the lace chart in the first half reads, “k5, yo, k1, yo, k8″ the other side needs to read, “k8, yo, k1, yo, k5.”

So far, this is totally fixing the issue, and I think the final shawl will be really pretty. I decided to use something summery because we’re already in the 70s here!

Here’s my little treehugger:
She LOVES sitting in this tree! Every time we’re out in the back yard, she asks to be put up in the branches.

Our fruit trees are blooming! There might be peaches:

…and PLUMS!

I’m so happy that it’s warming up!!

In case you’re wondering…Olive’s doing GREAT! She’s nursing really well and gaining weight like she’s supposed to. She’s a really mellow baby, and takes great naps! Here she is in a tee printed by the fabulousJodi Green:

So, Now that I’ve picked out my stitch patterns for class, I’m swatching them to see how they flow…

Here’s a rectangular swatch:

Sometimes it helps to look at the swatch from an angle to see how the stitches really flow into each other:

Here’s how I swatch to see how things will look in the actual shawl:

So we are well into week 2 of tshirt yarn class, and I’m really making a lot of projects!

Here’s a scarf that I knit, using a length of organic bamboo fabric that I cut into yarn. I overdyed it in tea! The tea stained the scarf in a really interesting way, and toned down the baby pink.

I also dyed this light pink yarn with tea:

Here’s what it looked like fresh out of the dye bath:

It was light pink to begin with, and the tea added those darker tan spots. I can’t wait to see how this knits up!

Here’s a little video on how to use tea or coffee to dye things:

Find more videos like this on UPcycled Tshirt Yarn Class