Saturday, July 21, 2007

Gauge - Knitting and Netting

I thought about gauge this past week. It is something I frequently ponder while working on knitting projects that use small needles like the mystery stole 3, or a pair of socks. I am so relaxed when knitting that I usually have to use needles several sizes smaller than suggested in whatever pattern I am using. This is not a problem unless the pattern calls for small size needles to begin with, then I end up using extremely small size needles, which is what happened with the socks I started yesterday.

That is one of the things I love about netting. While there is a need to be aware of gauge in netting, it is not dependent on the mood of the netter. It depends on the size of the mesh sticks. Below are two doilies, Crystal Shards (large and small), that illustrate the principle of gauge (as pertains to netting). The instructions for these two doilies are identical except for the size of the mesh sticks used. The small doily is 8.25 inches in diameter and the large one is 13.75 inches in diameter.



2 comments:

Meg said...

hi, I just saw this old post on netting... I want this look for a snood as my hair is thin and a regular yarn would be too heavy. If you have a pattern and instructions on netting, could you email me?
thank you very much.

Rita said...

You can look at the links located on http://knotsindeed.com/patterns/snoods.html to see some different snoods. Specific patterns are available for $3.50, but you need to know how to net to use them.

For instructions on how to net, check out knotsindeed.com/learn. You can also visit nettingnook.com to find classes on netting that use video. The beginning netting class will soon start again.