Textured Circle Shrug

Do you ever have a certain yarn that's taken on multiple incarnations?  That's what this yarn has been like for me.  Not because I don't like it -- in fact, I think it's the opposite.  

I wound it up with such a specific image in my mind of what I wanted this sweater to look like, but with no actual pattern to work from, so I've knitted it and re-knitted it seemingly dozens of times at this point.  Lucky for me it's a super bulky weight, on Size 15 needles!

Photo via Stefanie on Ravelry

A few months ago, I stumbled upon the Textured Circle Shrug by Stefanie Japel, and excitedly realized that this was the new destination for my identity-crisis yarn...except that the pattern calls for worsted weight, and this was clearly a different gauge, and not in the kind of way that you can ignore and be like, "That's okay, I like my sweaters a little baggy..."

So, I decided it was time for a little math.  I'm the kind of person that would rather adjust the pattern to fit my favorite yarn, rather than the other way around.  Sometimes this is pretty simple, and just a matter of going up or down a few needles sizes to accommodate for thicker or thinner yarn than the pattern calls for.  Hey, as long as you're getting the right gauge, no harm done, right?

But when you're doing some serious yarn substitution, like I was here, you've got to play around with some ratios.

 In some cases, this can be as simple as making little notes to yourself, indicating that even though the pattern might tell you to repeat a pattern over 13 rows, you'll really only be doing it over 6, because your rows are twice as big as the original gauge.

Or in some cases, you'll adjust the number of cast-on stitches based on those handy measurements that are given with the diagrams.  If I'm getting 2.5 stitches/inch, and I know the cast-on neckline is 9" long, then I'll be casting on 24 stitches (rounding up to keep an even number).

I know, I know, it's the holiday season and there's no time to really get down and dirty with the calculator right now.  I'll go more in depth with gauge adjustment after the New Year -- just wanted to give a sneak preview of what I've been working on, and how I'm making it happen!