I've been knitting pretty steadily now for about 14 years - I picked up the needles and sort of retaught myself how to do it way back in January 2006.
Over the past 14 years, I've noticed that my gauge seems to be nearly entirely needle driven. To be fair, I work almost exclusively with superwash merino wool, so maybe that's not terribly surprising. Sure, there have been a few blips along the way, like that one time I shockingly got gauge with a smaller than I would have expected needle, but that was measured over garter stitch, so maybe that's the key difference? (To be honest, I don't understand how that would be the case - for row gauge, sure, but stitch gauge? Why would garter vs. stockinette make a difference to stitch gauge?)
But, I noticed when I wore my latest socks - the March socks - that they seemed just a tad long. Which is weird, because I knit them to the exact same specs as my February socks. Same stitch count, same number of rows worked per section, same needles used, same superwash merino/nylon blend. Okay, not from the same dyer, so possibly/probably not the exact same base, but the same proportion of merino to nylon - 80/20 - and they're both plied, so I'm guessing that can't be a crucial difference. I did work the gusset decreases in a different spot, and wondered vaguely if that had made the difference.
Then, as I worked my sister's gradient socks, I worked the foot a bit shorter than usual, and got a sock that fit well. (I knocked out four rounds from the foot.) So I did that with the second as well, all while wondering about that shorter foot in the background of my mind.
I cast on my first April sock, cruised along, and on Saturday night I had worked enough of the leg to start the heel flap, established it, and went to bed.
When I woke up on Sunday, I took a good look at that sock in the light of day - as opposed to the diminished lighting of pre-bedtime knitting - and saw this:
Well, I snapped that picture after I had rearranged my needles as a lifeline, so you can see where this is heading. But more to the point, see how the patterning changes? Weird, no?
I stared at that leg for a bit, blinking the remaining sleepiness away. What had happened?
And then I remembered. I've been using a new hand/body lotion for about a month now. I quite like it, it's not super greasy feeling, but it does leave the skin a tiny bit sticky, and I've noticed the skin on my fingers and knuckles has been particularly dry and a bit rashy for some weeks now, so I've been taking care to make sure I get those parts of my hands really well when I apply lotion to my hands right before hopping into bed.
Before I have my before-bedtime knit session.
I also remembered being particularly perturbed by the stickiness on Saturday night, it was interfering with how my yarn was feeding into the knitting. The yarn wouldn't glide smoothly.
I pulled out a tape measure, and measured a bit of the stripier section. 9 sts to an inch. I then measured the less stripy section. 8 sts to an inch.
And I realized that most of the sock knitting I've done over the past month or so has been bedtime knitting, with the lotion-sticky hands. I grabbed my March socks to check the gauge. 8 sts to an inch. That's why they're a bit big. In order to keep the yarn moving, I had to loosen my tensioning on it, and that gave me a bigger gauge. That's probably also why my sister's gradient socks needed a few rounds knocked out of the foot - that part was also bedtime knitting, with lotion-sticky hands, and while the socks are no longer here for me to check, I'll be they're also knit at 8 sts to the inch.
So why were the April socks different at the beginnning? Because that part wasn't knit at bedtime. That portion was knit during the day, in front of my computer, a bit here and a bit there while I waited for pages to load as I marked stuff. The shift in the patterning marks out where I started knitting with lotion-sticky hands.
As you might have guessed, I've since ripped back to the stripier bit, and have not yet put back all that I undid, but I'll get there.
Without lotion-sticky hands.
Over the past 14 years, I've noticed that my gauge seems to be nearly entirely needle driven. To be fair, I work almost exclusively with superwash merino wool, so maybe that's not terribly surprising. Sure, there have been a few blips along the way, like that one time I shockingly got gauge with a smaller than I would have expected needle, but that was measured over garter stitch, so maybe that's the key difference? (To be honest, I don't understand how that would be the case - for row gauge, sure, but stitch gauge? Why would garter vs. stockinette make a difference to stitch gauge?)
But, I noticed when I wore my latest socks - the March socks - that they seemed just a tad long. Which is weird, because I knit them to the exact same specs as my February socks. Same stitch count, same number of rows worked per section, same needles used, same superwash merino/nylon blend. Okay, not from the same dyer, so possibly/probably not the exact same base, but the same proportion of merino to nylon - 80/20 - and they're both plied, so I'm guessing that can't be a crucial difference. I did work the gusset decreases in a different spot, and wondered vaguely if that had made the difference.
Then, as I worked my sister's gradient socks, I worked the foot a bit shorter than usual, and got a sock that fit well. (I knocked out four rounds from the foot.) So I did that with the second as well, all while wondering about that shorter foot in the background of my mind.
I cast on my first April sock, cruised along, and on Saturday night I had worked enough of the leg to start the heel flap, established it, and went to bed.
When I woke up on Sunday, I took a good look at that sock in the light of day - as opposed to the diminished lighting of pre-bedtime knitting - and saw this:
Well, I snapped that picture after I had rearranged my needles as a lifeline, so you can see where this is heading. But more to the point, see how the patterning changes? Weird, no?
I stared at that leg for a bit, blinking the remaining sleepiness away. What had happened?
And then I remembered. I've been using a new hand/body lotion for about a month now. I quite like it, it's not super greasy feeling, but it does leave the skin a tiny bit sticky, and I've noticed the skin on my fingers and knuckles has been particularly dry and a bit rashy for some weeks now, so I've been taking care to make sure I get those parts of my hands really well when I apply lotion to my hands right before hopping into bed.
Before I have my before-bedtime knit session.
I also remembered being particularly perturbed by the stickiness on Saturday night, it was interfering with how my yarn was feeding into the knitting. The yarn wouldn't glide smoothly.
I pulled out a tape measure, and measured a bit of the stripier section. 9 sts to an inch. I then measured the less stripy section. 8 sts to an inch.
And I realized that most of the sock knitting I've done over the past month or so has been bedtime knitting, with the lotion-sticky hands. I grabbed my March socks to check the gauge. 8 sts to an inch. That's why they're a bit big. In order to keep the yarn moving, I had to loosen my tensioning on it, and that gave me a bigger gauge. That's probably also why my sister's gradient socks needed a few rounds knocked out of the foot - that part was also bedtime knitting, with lotion-sticky hands, and while the socks are no longer here for me to check, I'll be they're also knit at 8 sts to the inch.
So why were the April socks different at the beginnning? Because that part wasn't knit at bedtime. That portion was knit during the day, in front of my computer, a bit here and a bit there while I waited for pages to load as I marked stuff. The shift in the patterning marks out where I started knitting with lotion-sticky hands.
As you might have guessed, I've since ripped back to the stripier bit, and have not yet put back all that I undid, but I'll get there.
Without lotion-sticky hands.
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