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Gauge Frustration
Notorious Sock Knitters | February 05, 2008
I think I’m on the fourth time frogging my socks.. maybe it’s the fifth now. The first few times were my attempts to make gauge. And then other mistakes made me rip one back to the 2×2 ribbing.
I’m working on two full sets of DPNs, hoping that doing the socks (almost) at the same time would keep my gauge even, but.. no! My second sock has totally different striping. I did one repeat and then switched socks and.. bleh. Here we go again!
Wish me luck this time around? I’m not sure I can stand to frog again. I never knew I’d be so dang nit-picky! I found out that half my lace pattern is off by one stitch on the first sock, and I can’t decide to pull that one back, too, or make it a ‘design element!’. Argh! 
I’d be done by now if I hadn’t started over so many times.
In the end, I know what I’m doing wrong, I just seem to keep making other small mistakes. Is anyone else finding they are as exacting with “perfection” as I am?
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10 Responses to “Gauge Frustration”
hi tinker tot
i AM the “frog queen.” i have been know to frog a completely finished sock because i didn’t like something about it…and i have done this more than once.
at least, str can stand up to multiple trips to the frog pond. and think how much more pleasure you are getting from reknitting the yarn. just think…you really got your $$’s worth. others only got the enjoyment ONCE! ;P
still no smiley face
All the time. Especially with the first its this mistake then its some other mistake. Constantly tinking to get back to a missed YO or extra stitch that should have been PSSO which makes the whole thing off and not easily fixed the next time you go past that point. Arrg and I’m talking about Lenore from last year. I know I’ll catch up soon but *sigh*. So you are not alone. Happy (if frustrating) Knitting, Alice
Being a natural perfectionist and having had so much trouble that my first 11 projects never saw the light of day because something wasn’t right…I’ve got some things I have to do to help me make it through patterns…this time I’ve seperated my stitches so that there are 11 sts on two of the needles and 22sts on the other two needles (I’m doing the medium). That helps me remember the pattern because I know it’s one or two repeats of the pattern for each needle. That and I make cheat sheets…I type out the instructions for each round using language that helps me rember what I’m supposed to be doing. Then I cut them out so that one or two of the rounds is on each of the cards. Usually I laminate them but if you just wanted to make cue cards out of those little index cards that would work. I do that so that I can flip each one over when I’ve done a round, it keeps me from having to remember what I’ve done… Also, I make sure that I start a round at the beginning of a needle to make it easier to see that I’m starting a new round (I use the tail as my marker). Good luck!!!
Amy
ps I ripped out several inches the other day because I messed up one little stitch…I feel yer pain!!
I did the same thing with my Inside Outs last year. I ended up using the exact same needles to knit with - I’d move the sock I wanted to stop working on onto another pair of needles and use the ones I had used to knit it with to knit the second one and back and forth. I had initially been using the same brand of needles in the same size. Just not the exact same physical needles. When I switched to the exact same physical needles I managed to get stripes on both socks. But I never did manage to get them exactly the same. The stripes on the second sock were narrower than on the first for the foot and vice-versa I think for the leg. Or the other way round. Either way, they still didn’t match exactly but at that point I gave up on trying to figure out why the stripe heights didn’t match. The gauge was exactly the same for each sock. So far as I could tell anyway. So at some point you may have to rein in your perfectionism. But I was much happier with two socks that striped even if the heights were different than I was with one striping and one pooling. So I was glad I had frogged. Despite how long those socks ended up taking.
Y’all are completely out of your minds.
But if it makes you happy, so be it.
I just call mine design enhancements and move on unless it leave a huge hole, or harder to knit the next round.
I’m thrilled that after pulling one sock back to the 2×2 ribbing, and the other back half of its lace pattern, that they once again match! I’ve got my gauge knitting the same on both socks (it took swapping the same needles back and forth, and using my extras only as stitch-holders on the waiting sock). I don’t mind minor differences. I do mind lace being off by a stitch, or the stripes being significantly different (they were only 3 rows deep on one sock, and 5 rows on the other).
So, for tonight, anyway, I’m happy!
And that’s what counts!
I feel so much better. I thought it was just me. I was off by a single stitch on the very last repeat of my first leg. After asking a few knitterly friends who swore that they couldn’t see it…I was really, really trying to accept it as a design feature. That’s what I get for not using a marker to ID the beginning of the round. I was blessed with the opportunity to frog my heel and caved. Out went that last repeat. I added a stitch marker to the sock and a Post-It to the chart.
Now, I’ve even mapped out my heel.
I can feel your pain. I have one sock reknit the 3rd time down past the heel, and it still isn’t right. So I yarded out my DP’s and have started a second sock, from the spare ball of yarn. I have found that I’m knitting the medium size on size 0 needles. I think it’s a keeper. Hooray! I will be posting my results soonn on Ravelry, but I don’t want to hex the sock before it’s done.
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