Venezia from Interweave Winter 06 by Eunny Jang

[Moiraine]

okay so i followed my own advice and put my inprogress venezia on scrap yarn to see how it fits....... it does not fit at all, its way too big.

That stinks.  When I'm faced with a situation like this, I just rip it and get started again.  Before you know it, you'll be back to the same spot you're at now with a sweater that fits you well. 

Did you swatch in the round?  Did you use the same needles on your swatch as your sweater?  Those things may affect your gauge.  Also, the larger the area you measure gauge over, the more accurate your measurement will be.  How big was your swatch?  Maybe as you got comfortable with the pattern, you loosened up a bit? 

I am currently making a stranded Christmas stocking with Jamieson's spindrift.  It's my "practice" project to get a feel for the yarn and to practice two-handed stranding (my first try at it) before I start Venezia.  I was a few inches into it and found that the circumference of my stocking (which was supposed to be 15" around) was 4" too big!  So I ripped and started again with the same needles, but I stranded more tightly and my gauge has been right on.  I had originally read that one should strand loosely, so I guess I had been concentrating too hard on leaving it all loose enough...and it was much too loose.  Is it possible that’s what you’re doing?

I know it sucks to start over.  But try to think of it as an opportunity to make the perfectly fitting sweater.  And it's just more knitting...somethin g you enjoy.    The nice thing about knitting is that we can rip and start over to get an item we are pleased with.  Don't give up! 

[cnp71201]

When I have to rip and start over, I usually just pull the work off the needles if I need to reuse them, but don't rip yet. I start over, and before I know it, I've passed what I had done before, and then it's easy to rip. No pain at all!

I am sure when you've finished, it will be worth all the work and then some, so I hope you don't give up! Good luck!

[superstitch]

I knit my swatch on dpns, the same size as the circular i'm using, and my swatch was about 7inches by 7 inches, i thought i had planned so carefully. I made eunny's deep v first so i know i have pretty even tension with my two handed fairisle. I think i'm just going to have to not question it and go down a size. Another thing i might do before i start over is fully chart out the size i'm making with where i want the decreaeses and everything. Does anyone else have a copy of eunny's deep v vest? The way she charted out the vest was brilliant, much easier to follow than a  little chart of one pattern repeat.

Actually, now that i think about it, i may just go down a needle size, i'll have to play around and see, my smaller size 2 circular is currently being used for knitty's thermal. hmm

[Moiraine]

    Sounds like you did a good job swatching.  I hope you get it all worked out Superstitch.  I remember Jemmer mentioned in one of her posts (maybe on her blog) that her row gauge grew a bit as she went along, so her armholes ended up bigger than she intended.  I think gauge can easily grow once you (general "you") get comfortably cruising along on a pattern.

I hope going down a needle size works out for you.

[rorosity]

What size needles did you use for the bottom band?  Mine is still way too big.  I think I am just going to have to start over.  I am using size 2.  I think I might have to go down to size 1.

Jeannine

[superstitch]

i used the same size needles for the bottom band and the pattern work which was not good, my bottom band came out a little ripply because it didn't draw in like the fairisle, i was going to just accept it and move on, but now i'll get a chance to redo it since my pattern work it too big too

[rorosity]

I guess I will first do a gauge swatch of the pattern.  I didn't do one before starting the bottom band, so I think I will just take my time and do it right.  Ugh!!!

Jeannine

[MartiniMonsters]

Progress is soooo slow. I just finished the decreases. After reading about everyone's sizing problems I tried mine on out of paranoia. I'm making the smallest size and thank goodness I'm even smaller because my gauge is a bit off in the opposite direction of everyone else. It's kind of nice though because it fits me like a glove, it's just too short so I think I'm just going to do extra rows before I start the increases.

[superstitch]

wow! so pretty

[Moiraine]

That's gorgeous MartiniMonsters!