Knit questions

[catwoman]

Hi. I was wondering what are  variations and what are  ratios in gauge  and how to figure out and calculate ratios (sts and rows ) mathwise ?

[Granny Square]

Is this question related to my response to your gauge question on the 1898 hat?  (Which I'm hoping your row gauge is really correct if you counted garter 'ridges' as 1 row, when it's really 2). 

With the same hook and yarn, all knitters will get different vertical (row) tension with straight stockinette versus straight garter.  You will have more rows per inch in garter.  I believe the horizontal (stitch width) tension should be the same for both.

Also, knit stitches are short and fat, and I'm guessing the exact ratio depends on your personal gauge tension as well.

When you pick up stitches into the sides of knitting (stockinette or garter), because stitches are short and fat you will have fat stitches worked across the short sides of stitches, so if you pick up and knit a new stitch into each side stitch, the piece will ruffle.  Different people will have different rates of 'pick up', usually 3 stitches skip 1, or 4 stitches skip 1, or alternate those 2 schemes--this is a trial and error thing, not a math thing for a button band where the stitch count of the picked up stitches wouldn't matter so much, but it would matter for your hat.

One question on gauge that I've seen many times on boards is something like:  "the pattern gauge is 12 stitches per 4 inches and I'm getting 14 stitches.  Do I need to try a bigger or smaller hook/needle?"  Think of it as packing something into a box that is supposed to hold exactly x things.  If you can get more things into the box than you are supposed to, the things are too small (so you need to make them bigger with a bigger hook/needle).  If you can't cram the whole quantity you should be able to into the box, the things are to big (so you need a smaller hook/ndl).

There is a lot of math in knitting and crochet, but it's simple grade school arithmetic.  I'm not a math whiz.  I have a calculator handy when I crochet or knit.  And visualizing things to solve a problem when the abstract  math logic fails me, like 'cramming big or little things in a box', really helps.  Sometimes when I come across something like ' increase x stitches evenly across y stitches ', I'll do the math (calculator!) and if it comes out a fraction, draw a sketch to determine what would look best, or as a double check.  Example, 'increase 20 stitches over 70 stitches'; 70 divided by 20 is 3.5.  So alternating increases in every 3rd stitch and every 4th stitch would work.  The sketch would be to make sure an increase came out close to a matching count at each end, or needed to move over a stitch here to make aesthetic or functional sense in the pattern.

On your variables question...that could be anything.  Like fit maybe--example in your 1898 hat, the placement for the ear flaps would have to be recalculated if your gauge differed drastically and you changed your stitch count rather than changed needles to hit gauge, because ears aren't spaced evenly around the brim of the hat.  Which could also be a ratio - x% from front of the left ear to front of the right, y% for each ear, z% across the back of the head between ear backs.  

Visualize what you need to do, I think, is the key.  Double check to make sure the math makes sense (like a sketch, or whatever 'test' makes sense). 

 

 

[catwoman]

Hi granny square. Thanks for the help.

I was wondering a few things what do you mean by y percent,z percent and x percent?

Also,what do you mean by if your st gauge is changed you have to change the placement of the earflaps?

I was wondering what does this mean the ears are not evenly spaced around the brim of the hat?

 

[Granny Square]

My ears aren't spaced evenly around my head, so I assumed the pattern's ear flaps would be anatomically spaced, as well (I confess I didn't look at the pattern directions, but it looked like the flaps were positioned correctly closer to the back than in front of the head, from the photo).  

Adding measurements for my head, very roughly measured about where a hat brim would sit: x% (about 12") from top front of the left ear to top front of the right, y% (about 1" ) for each ear, z% (about 8")across the back of the head between lower ear backs.  In other words, my ears are set a bit rearward from the center of my head--the distance between the back sides of my ears is only 2/3 the distance between the front side of my ears.  In other words, if you placed ear flaps directly across from each other, with the same # of stitches between, they'd partly cover my eyes and upper cheeks not my ears.  

I didn't mean you'd have to change the relative placement of the flaps, but you'd have to carefully recalculate a new # of stitches between them front and back to get them placed in the correct spot over your ears.

If this was just a very plain hat, which would be more or less a half sphere shaped, and made all in 1 direction (top to bottom, not vertically  for the brim and picked up stitches for the crown and no ear flaps that had to be positioned correctly), it wouldn't be that hard to recalculate the # of stitches and rows of the pattern for your gauge.  

But this hat has all of those complications that would make it a real challenge to adjust to a drastically different gauge, it's essentially a complete rewrite.