WIP Wednesday?

... or is it "Lessons Learned" ?!

I was all excited to start a new project (not like I don't have enough going on, right?!) AND I wanted something new to show for WIP Wednesday.

A baby sweater knitted mostly on my knitting machine...

Step 1: get out instruction book to remind self of how to set up machine
Step 2: get rhythm going back and forth
Step 3: measure length allowing for some shrinkage once it is off the machine

.... is good

... so I then take the knitting off the machine and let it rest on the table... so far so good. I check the length. It had shrunk up 3 inches!! not to worry, I'll just knit the missing inches by hand.

Then I checked the stitch gauge (big mistake, I should've just pretended everything was fine) Gauge for this pattern is 20sts=4"
I got 16sts=4" !!!!!! ok.... I just need to use a smaller plate on the machine.

I had used plate #3 the first time so I got out plate #2. I increased the rows so I wouldn't have to hand knit so many to make up for the shrinkage.


Excitedly I take the knitting off the machine, let it rest, and then measure... what the ?#! it only measures 17sts=4"

Patience grasshopper.... you can do this....
For the third time, I set up the machine and knit using plate #1 (I'll show this machine whose boss, grumble, grumble... I do have patience, I do, I do...)

The knitting looked good; it was a denser fabric. Yay I thought... and then I measured...
18sts=4"

Now when I was younger, I would've thrown the knitting in a closet and shut the door, never to knit again! But I am older and wiser.

So I rewound the yarn.
Aha! I thought, I'll just hand knit it so I can still show something new for today's WIP.

I knitted a small gauge swatch (key word, "small") using recommended needle size. Eureka! it came out to gauge. So I started knitting. After an hour of knitting and admiring how nice it looked, I measure for gauge again. (BIG mistake!!) I got 21sts=4"

The yarn and the pattern are now in "time out"

LESSONS LEARNED:
1. machine knit a gauge swatch before jumping in and knitting the whole piece
2. once you have a knitted fabric you like, check the gauge, then look in the "the knitter's handy book of Patterns" by Ann Budd
3. matching your gauge to one in the book, you will now know how many sts to cast on the machine
4. Scooby Do, Where Are You?! Call SuKnitWitty for help! She's a veteran machine knitter having logged in many hours of machine knitting hats, sweaters, bags, and so on.


So... for today's WIP I give you....the brown sock... again.
I will probably finish the toe today and it will become an FO (finished object). That's if I knit today.

I may decide to read a book.