Gauge Lessons

I am coming up on my 2nd knitting anniversary in December and I am now just starting to learn about gauge. Last night I was going to start a shawl with my Knit Picks Wool of the Andes yarn I have been agonizing over how to use it. Yesterday in church during bible class I was freezing. I looked at my outfit and realized it has black in it and a shawl would match. Last night I found a pattern and decided to try and do a guage swatch. I probaby did it wrong. I did 6-8 rows and then measured. I was looking for lenght. Was it 4 inches long? I did 4-5 swatches on different size needles and realized after I tried a size 8 that larger needles gives more lenght. Smaller needles gives less. I had it mixed up, I figured if you went smaller you could get more stitches per inch which would make it longer. So the size 8 seems to work. I will try a longer swatch later to make sure. I may go up to a 9 to give a bit more lenght.

I was laying in bed and thinking about gauge and the hat I am knitting. It is no longer for Joel. It is for a baby boy some day. I looked at my knitting and saw that it is pretty good! I don't want to rip it out but I want my needles back! It is good car knitting or TV knitting. I think I will add it back to the basket and squeeze it it somehow.

I started the poncho! I have 4 of the 9 inches of ribbing done. It has a flaw. I knit where I should have purled or vise versa. But since it is a turtleneck and the ribbing will be folded over. It won't show. Plus I can put that part in the back to hide it further. For bulky weight yarn it is going slow.I started Saturday. But I am a slow knitter anyway. I am looking forward to finishing the ribbing and it is easy, but I'm itching to get on with the body. I had a frustrating start to it. On Friday I drove to Michaels and Joanns to get the needles and yarn since I didn't have the size I needed to start. Got both and came to home cast on. I cast on and realized I wasn't going to be able to join in the round. Why? Because I didn't read the directions carefully and it lists 3 diferent cord lenghts for the needles. I needed a 16", 29" and 23" of a size 10. I bought a 29 inch. So Saturday I went back to the store and bought a 16" size 10. Everything is good now. I always wondered why 16" was a needed size? What did you do with them? Now I know.

My black scarf is on the back burner. I did a round (4 row round) last night and looked at the amount that's left. I'm getting close! It will be a full lenght scarf when it's done. I do not know what I will do with it. I may gift it to someone for Christmas. It should be done by then. When that is done I am dragging my white wool angora scarf  out and do that one. I have 2 skeins of that so not sure what I will do. I may rip it out and make something else or keep it a scarf. I started it when I only had 1 skein.