Gauge Problems

Gauge problems. Can you relate? If you’re already cringing, I’ll warn you that I won’t demystify anything today, but you may enjoy relating and commiserating here. Or you may have a demystifying tip to share!

In my last crochet project, I needed to crochet a simple 9″ square background and I had big gauge problems. (Click here to skip to the details of my attempts.) I thought it would be easy peasy, but I was doing Tunisian crochet and it was hard! I ended up settling for a square-ish background…

Okay. Imagine me struggling to crochet a 9″ square, and then imagine me crocheting a garment—a dress—for the first time. I’m proud to say that I finished! However, the process wasn’t pretty and it doesn’t look quite like I hoped.

Updated 11/4/2022 — You can see the dress here: “A Crochet Dress: My 1st Garment!”

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Picking the Pattern

I fell in love when I found Aunt Lydia’s Natural Beauty Crochet Dress, designed by Lisa Gentry. I’d been scouring the internet for weeks looking for exactly this type of dress. I read the pattern and felt confident in my ability to follow it, so I ordered some cotton thread. (My favorite medium!) I love Aunt Lydia’s crochet thread, but I’d been wanting to try Curio, so I substituted that brand.

I had never done a gauge swatch before this project. Theoretically, I knew about gauge. I knew why it’s important, and how to measure it. I knew some of the things to modify when the gauge doesn’t match. Therefore, I wasn’t too worried about this new undertaking. I went into the project excited to put my gauge theory into practice, determined to do it the “right” way. Then I read the gauge section in more detail and was confused before I even picked up a hook.

The Gauge Requirement

I was intimidated by the fact that there were three gauges. I’ve now learned this isn’t terribly uncommon, but I was shocked at the time and I had questions:

• Is it normal for garments to have multiple gauge swatches?
• Would I use different hooks for each section?
• Was I in over my head?

Most importantly: How do I identify the stitch pattern repeat for each gauge swatch?

I took my gauge problems to r/crochet on Reddit because I didn’t know who else to ask for help. I got a few pointers from two kind individuals, but their responses boiled down to:

1. “You can do it!” (This person was correct.)
2. “This isn’t a good first garment. Try something easier!” (This person was also correct.)

There was no way I was letting go of this pattern. I made an agreement with myself that I’d be okay with ripping out my work because it would be worth re-working to get the end result. Doing things the hard way is always an option, but I was hoping to learn about the smart way as I went along.

Gauge Attempts (& Gauge Problems)

The three gauge swatches are: yoke, body, and single crochet. The single crochet one was straight-forward, but I spent a lot of time reading the yoke and body sections of the pattern to figure those swatches out. It helped that there was a reduced sample of the body stitch pattern, but I was hung up on the yoke. This seemed like the most important swatch because it’s the most ornate section and also the first part of the pattern to make.

I started with the simple single crochet gauge, because I knew how to do it. I found a hook that allowed me to make 22 sc = 4″, and started the pattern. My tension must’ve changed dramatically between the swatch and starting the project, though, because I measured the neckband after the first few rows and it was way too big. I ripped it out and started over with a smaller hook. I re-did the starting chain until I found a hook that gave me the correct measurement for the neckband, which was much smaller (2.25mm) than the one suggested for the pattern (3.75mm). The discrepancy seemed too big, but told myself it could be because I was using a different brand of thread…

I let it be and moved on to the yoke. That yoke swatch, though. I couldn’t figure out the stitch pattern repeat to save my life. There were two interrelated gauge problems:

• There are several different stitch pattern repeats within the yoke section. Which one do I pick for the gauge swatch? How do I decide which one is more prominent or important?
• Let’s pretend I know which stitch pattern repeat to use. Since this project is worked in the round with increases to accommodate the bust, how do I make a flat swatch to measure?

Here’s one of my feeble swatches for the yoke. I didn’t worry about making a square yet, because I was just trying to figure out the darn stitch pattern!

I figured I hadn’t picked the right stitch pattern anyway and decided to just carry on making the yoke with the hook that had given me the correct neckband measurement.

Carry On, My Wayward Son

Despite the difficulties and the fact I was in over my head, I enjoyed this project. Here’s a photo of the first yoke I made, one row away from being finished:

I completely skipped the body swatch, even though I knew the body’s stitch pattern repeat (thanks to the stitch diagram). I guess I wasn’t so excited about gauge, after being outclassed by the yoke gauge enigma.

After finishing the body, I tried the piece on and it was way too tight in every direction. Gauge problems lead to fit problems! Up to this point I had frogged multiple sections of rows here and there, but this hurt bad. I undid 1.5 balls of thread and cried like someone had died. My boyfriend came home to find me sobbing while re-winding the thread to start over. I didn’t start over for a few days while I got over the trauma.

Now that I had the stitch pattern repeats for both the yoke and body memorized, I tried to make the yoke gauge swatch again and failed again. I threw those pieces of crap to the wind and guessed a new hook size (3.0 mm), and that’s what I stuck with to the end of the project.

I started over a final time. After finishing the yoke with the new hook size, it didn’t fit like it’s supposed to, but it was “good enough.” I carried on with the body, which turned out too short. So, I added more rows to it. In the end, neither the yoke nor the body fall at the right marks on my figure, and that’s a shame. The dress is still wearable, though. I think. (Pictures coming soon!)

Where Does All That Leave Me?

Don’t get me wrong, I love this dress because of the many, many hours I spent with it. I’ve bonded with it. However, I agree that this pattern isn’t great for a first-time-garment-maker.

If I were to make this dress again, I still wouldn’t know how to do the yoke gauge swatch and I’d be nervous about the body swatch. I assumed working the whole pattern would help me figure out the swatches in hindsight, but it didn’t. I know exactly how I would modify the pattern to make it fit me better, though. It seems easier to modify the pattern than to decipher the gauge swatch, so I didn’t learn my lesson.

One day, I’ll be able to write a detailed tutorial about this. Most articles I’ve found about crochet gauge cover its importance and how to measure and adjust it in detail, but gloss over the part where you actually crochet the swatch. Some articles don’t even mention making the swatch and dive straight into measuring. It’s hard to find guidance on how to extract a stitch pattern, which is understandable since it’s going to vary on a case-by-case basis. Yet there’s got to be a general approach that makes the process easier…

(To be continued.)

Comparing Measurements

I took a measuring tape to the dress to compare my measurements to the numbers given in the pattern. I made size Small/Medium, intended to fit bust 34″-38″.

Observations:

• The crucial sections (yoke, bust, narrowest point) turned out smaller than they should’ve.
• The less important sections (sleeves, skirt) turned out bigger than they should’ve.

Overall, I was actually surprised that my measurements weren’t further off from the pattern’s.

	Pattern’s Measurement	My Measurement
Finished Bust	36″	34.5″
Neckband	28.5″	28″
Sleeve Circumference	15.5″	16″
Circumference – Bottom of Skirt	40″	45″
Circumference – Narrowest Point	36″	34″
Finished Length	33″	32.5″
Yoke Length	8″	8.5″
Body + Skirt Length	25″	24″

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Take-aways for Gauge

I’m not giving up on gauge swatches, because I like the idea of not frogging hours of work. I’m sure I’ll continue to run into gauge problems, but I’ll learn gauge solutions, too.

• Make gauge swatches for future projects.
• Make more garments, including ones with simple gauge requirements.
• Work on improving my tension and keeping tension consistent.
• Practice, practice, practice. Patience.

Carry on! =) Next, you can see the finished dress here.

— Kelsey