Pioneeeeeeeeer!

The August and September Lorna's Laces Knit-along pattern is Pioneer; I'll be doing mine in the Woodlawn colorway -



However, I am having horrible gauge problems.

Here's an excerpt from something I wrote on Ravelry, as back-story:

But here’s the process that I used to get to my correct cast-on number (and bear with me, for I’m sort of writing out my thought process rather than jumping to the conclusion, because I am about the most math-phobic knitter on the face of the planet):

Swatching: I knit a swatch on both 4’s and 3’s - I did the 3’s first as I am a loose, loose knitter and usually knit Shepherd Sport on 3’s. However, I have circular 4’s that are the length I need for this project, so I swatched on those as well. I’m getting 6.5 on the 4, and 6.75 on the 3, so I’m going with the 4’s.

Begging for logic in math: I want to make about the 38” bust, but if i am getting 6.5 stitches per inch, and I want the bust to be approximately 38 inches, then at the bust I should have approximately 247 stitches; which only really looks close to the numbers of the 50” size. Ack! brain!melting! So then. Let me see what Sally says about ratios (I accidentally took three classes from Sally Melville last year - long story - and was possibly insufferable for weeks with my knitting friends, only saying “Well, Sally says…” to every knitting question). OK; according to my notes, if gauge in the pattern is “puppies” and my personal gauge is “kittens” (I refuse to say “X” and “Y”, I have just.that.much. math anxiety), then puppies into kittens equals martinis (one of which I really want after thinking this much about math before lunchtime). So I should multiply by martinis every time my pattern says puppies. LOLwhut?! Using real numbers instead: the gauge in Pioneer is 5; my personal gauge is 6.5; 5 into 6.5 is 1.3; so every time I see a number in Pioneer, I should times it by 1.3. Sadly I do not have the numbers for the 38” because I am a slacker and kept forgetting to email and ask for it, so I’ll pull from the numbers for the 41”, which I’m guessing I’m going to wind up using anyway. After all of the neckline increases are done, at approximately the bust level, for the 41” numbers I should have 206 (at 5 sts/inch). If I times 206 by 1.3 I get 267, which is only 20 stitches more than I’m guessing I would have. The difference of those 20 stitches is approximately 3 inches, which is the difference between 38 and 41 - and I really hope y’all are still with me.

Conclusion: In playing around with that ratio formula, all of the numbers I’ve played with seem to indicate that the given numbers for the gauge that I’m getting means that I need to make between the 38” and 41” size. However, I’m not making this for me - I’m making it for [deleted to not ruin the surprise], who is roughly the same size as I am. I would much rather have it come out just a tad too large than a tad too small, so I have decided to use the numbers for the 41” size to make Pioneer.

However, what I'm getting on size 4 needles is so loose that it... it looks like cheesecloth. You can practically read through it. So... I'll be switching to size 3's, and going up one size in my knitting in order to compensate.

And I'm sooo glad this is a two-month knit-along!