Finding gauge

My not-so-much-of-a-break has been continuing. The good news is that I now have a good draft of the program which will hopefully go up on the web later today (I've passed the baton).

In a few captured moments ,I have continued to play with my gauge for the forest canopy shawl.



As I mentioned in comments in one of my last posts, the attempts I'd been making ended up with fabric that was too dense so the lace just wasn't showing well.

The pattern called for a US 8 needle with a DK weight (24 stiches per, with US 6 or 7 according to the ball band) yarn.

My first attempt was to use some Malabrigo wool that I purchased recently. No suprise here, the worsted weight just wasn't a good choice.

Next I decided to try some koigu that I purchased for the shawl awhile back. Koigu is a finer yarn (fingering, 28 stuches per on US 3 according to the ball band).

Given that the pattern used a needle about 1-2 sizes larger than recommended on the ball band, I thought I'd try that with the koigu (so I started with a US 5). Doing that still seems to have given me less lace, and more dense fabric.



[this is the US 5 swatch... it's also upper left in the first photo]

Hence, the need to try an even larger needle to get more of a lace effect. I've swatched now using a US 7 and am getting a better effect.



I find it very strange that even though I'm using fingering versus DK I'm going to end up using needles only 1 size different. Some things are still a mystery to me!

Nevertheless, the knit is on and I'm off and running with the shawl.

By the way, have people been watching the new Knitty Gritty episodes airing on DIY? I've been pretty impressed with the new episodes so far. The editing I'm not so fond of, but the designers (Cookie A., Glampyre Knits) and projects have been great! Since it's break, I've also been catching up on the new-to-me 600 series showing on HGTV... some good stuff there too.