In my project bag: a Fair Isle vest

The upside of tension.

In an unexpected twist, I am now a Fair Isle knitter. I am honestly still astonished as I hold this project in my lap. I pet the fabric, I squish it between my fingers, loving the feel and body, and all the while marveling at what is growing in my own hands. I don’t think of myself as an advanced knitter, so there is some identity recalibration that needs to happen. When people see what I am making and say “Oh, I could never knit that,” I have to stop myself from responding “Me neither!” 

Because, as it turns out, I can! Who knew? 

You may have gathered that this vest, the Carraig Fhada by Katie Davies, is a big stretch for me. I have done some entry-level color work projects: a row of whales on a sleep sack, a multi-colored hat for my son, and one row of sinister cats on an otherwise plain sweater. In all, I have dabbled in color work. This vest, however, is nonstop color work - from the hem ribbing to the collar, rows and rows of patterned stitches fill all the space between. Intimidating, but still, I felt pulled toward the challenge.

I did three swatches because I wasn’t getting the gauge - and I have known the sorrow of finishing a garment only to find that it doesn’t fit. I’m not going to spend hours upon hours knitting, all the while wondering if it will actually fit — that is not an edge that I want to live on. 

When I was pregnant with my younger son, I knit a sweater that was supposed to fit the baby at 3-months-old - but when finished it was too big for my 3-year-old! Then I knit a pair of wooly pants that were so large I ran out of yarn on the second leg. I pulled out the stitches and put the yarn back in the stash and wondered at my problem. I had always been a standard-tension knitter - my knitting came out pretty close to the expected gauge, so a 3-month-sized baby sweater would come out at the expected size (though the babies came in all their own sizing). But, suddenly, my gauge was so loose I had to go down 4 needle sizes to come even close. 

Since I was pregnant, my body was full of relaxin - a hormone released in preparation for childbirth. Yes, it was making my pelvis looser, but really it affects the whole body, so my knees hurt, my feet got wider, and I got heartburn. Every visit to my midwife, it seemed that some new discomfort was pinned on the relaxin making my whole body looser. So, the logic followed that if my knitting was getting looser, it must be the relaxin at work. Maybe not scientific, but it made sense at the time. Postpartum, I kept waiting for my gauge to tighten up, but like my abdominal muscles, my knitting tension never went back to the way I remembered it.

Until this spring. 

I was trying to knit a stranded color work project (two yarns at once) - fingerless mitts that I hoped would be a stepping stone to my future vest. The pattern called for size 2 needles, and I could only go down 2 sizes to size 0, and even that wasn’t enough. My ribbing was laughably loose, and I complained to my knitting group. I probably whined and sulked a little for good measure because the fantasy of the fair isle vest was slipping away despite my efforts. Two knitting buddies took a look and started giving me some suggestions. And with some tinkering, the advice worked. My fingerless mittens started to look like they would fit me (instead of a basketball player). 

I thought that would be just a local solution - that it would just affect the color work or tiny needles - but when I went to swatch for my next project, a sweater for my son, I was aiming for 22 stitches measuring 4 inches across, and instead I suddenly had 30 tidy stitches in those 4 inches. Meaning, if I went ahead and knit that sweater for my 11 year old, it would end up being snug on my 5 year old niece, because those 160 stitches, which should have measured 29 inches around the body, would have instead measured 21 inches around.

So I did a second gauge swatch, going up two needle sizes, and when that didn’t improve things, I went up 3 more needle sizes and that swatch finally was in spitting distance of the tension I needed. Now I am working on this vest, and I had to go up 3 needle sizes to get gauge.

So what does this mean? Is this a midlife tension recalibration? Is this why I can’t sleep at 3 AM? I don’t really like that for my sleep needs, but I have to be honest, I am delighted for my knitting gauge. Because, holy smokes, I am the knitter I have always dreamed of being! I have a gorgeous color work vest in progress and soon I can try socks, which never worked with my loose gauge because knitting needles don’t go down to negative sizes.

I’m just hoping this “midlife tension recalibration” is not reflected in my blood pressure readings.