Blatant Falsehoods
I’m good at math. I know it’s common for knitters to shy away from math, but really I don’t mind it. On occasion (and under the influence of an adult beverage or two) I have been seized by the need to understand a particular math problem and have gone and found the calculus textbooks and the graph paper and the calculator and spent a happy hour figuring it out. So I tend to take it rather personally when math lies to me.
That swatch-turned-mitt is 32 stitches and 8 inches around. I measured carefully. I can do that math.
32 stitches / 8 inches = 4 stitches per inch
Now, armed with that information, it should be quite simple to get to a 24 inch hat. I can do that math too.
24 inches * 4 stitches per inch = 96 stitches
So you can, perhaps, imagine my fury when my 96 stitch hat (on the exact same needles, with the same skein of yarn) was nowhere near 24 inches. I even took it off the needles and put it on a bit of waste yarn to make sure it wasn’t just looking small because it was squished up on the dpns. Nope. Not even close. And it’s not a matter of blocking, as the gauge didn’t actually change when I blocked it.
It has been set aside while my rage abates. I’ll take it up later, but for now it needs a time out.
Editing to add: Anyone have a Pittsburgh yarn store recommendation? I’m going to be there tomorrow and would love to swing by somewhere.
Math is just creepy and my most difficult subject to teach my kids and you like to do it while you’re buzzed. I am shaking my head here. Personally I like to pounce on my husband in that state. LOL
Math doesn’t lie. Swatches do, though, especially at looser gauges. (Haven’t figured out yet why that happens, but generally my gauge is pretty stable on smaller sizes… and is not on larger ones…) It’s rather infuriating, really.
Stop by Knit One in the Squirrel Hill area of Pittsburgh. It is the largest in the area. We have everything, Madeline Tosh, Malabrigo, Koigu, Blue Sky, Cascade, Aslands, Berroco to name a few. I will be there in the morning teaching so stop in. Oh, I almost forgot, we currently have a Vogue Knitting trunk show in the store too.
People talk about losing their sock mojo – maybe your sock mojo is feeling betrayed and screwing with you? Maybe while the hat is in a well-deserved time-out, you can finish up swirly 🙂