Tips from Crystal Palace Yarns - Straw Into Gold
Knitting Tip for checking gauge with fuzzy, eyelash or loop bulky yarn
Sometimes you cannot see the stitches well if you are knitting with a hairy or furry yarn.
If you use this marking method you'll be able to count rows and stitches more easily.
Using the needles you want to use for the body of your sweater, cast on 14 or more stitches. A good way to choose how many stitches to cast on is to take the number of stitches you want to have in 4 inches/10 cm and add 2 stitches on each side.
So if your gauge calls for 12 stitches in 4 inches, cast on 16 sts. If you want to save a little yarn, cast on using leftover yarns (doubled if they are finer than the yarn you are testing).
Knit 2 rows of garter stitch and one row of St St. Change to main yarn and knit four rows in st st. K2, tie a colored thread of contrasting color between the stitch just knit and the following stitch, K12 (or the number you are testing for gauge), tie another contrasting thread, K2.
Work the number of rows, or a multiple of them including the row just completed (perhaps 10 rows). AGAIN tie the marker threads as above. Knit 2 more rows of st st and end with 2 rows of garter stitch.
Now you can measure your stitch and row gauge using the colored threads to show known number of stitches and rows.
Above is a detail of the Collar Royale in Splash
This is the kind of project where this tip for measuring gauge is needed.See our other Tips and How-to Information here
