Sock It To Me, Beowulf 3

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Socks are challenging.  Firstly, they have to fit the wearer.  Luckily Alma and I have exactly the same size foot, so I have a handy try-on model at the end of each leg.

But there still is a hurdle to get the sock to fit me. This is where the concept of gauge comes in.  Gauge means the number of stitches per inch, and the number or rows per inch.  You need to knit to gauge, if you want your knitting to come out the same size as the pattern.  How to achieve this?  The traditional way to do it is to knit a small piece with the yarn in the pattern — a gauge swatch — and measure it.   Here is mine — about 40 stitches wide and 14 rows high, showing a couple of words of the Old English text.  I hope they are right-side up!  You cannot probably count the stitches in the photo, but you can take my word for it that I am getting about 36 stitches to four inches.  Since the pattern calls for 35 stitches per inch, that’s close enough — these are size 0 (2.00 mm) Pony Pearl sock needles, the smallest ones I own, and I refuse to go smaller.

Next up: knit tricks.

My new novel SPEAK TO OUR DESIRES is out exclusively from Book View Press!

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About Brenda Clough

Brenda W. Clough spent much of her childhood overseas, courtesy of the U.S. government. Her first fantasy novel, The Crystal Crown, was published by DAW in 1984. She has also written The Dragon of Mishbil (1985), The Realm Beneath (1986), and The Name of the Sun (1988). Her children’s novel, An Impossumble Summer (1992), is set in her own house in Virginia, where she lives in a cottage at the edge of a forest. Her novel How Like a God, available from BVC, was published by Tor Books in 1997, and a sequel, Doors of Death and Life, was published in May 2000. Her latest novels from Book View Cafe include Revise the World (2009) and Speak to Our Desires. Her novel A Most Dangerous Woman is being serialized by Serial Box. Her novel The River Twice is newly available from BVC.

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Sock It To Me, Beowulf 3 — 2 Comments

  1. Fortunately they are socks. If you were getting one too many stitches per 4 inches on a size x-large man’s cardigan sweater, you could be in serious trouble. P.S. The letters look right side up to me.