April 23, 2007

A Tip to Better Help Consistency in Gauge

Anyone who has ever crocheted knows how important gauge is. It affects the size of your finished project. But what if your problem is consistency in your gauge?
There is really no easy way to teach someone this other than to tell them to crochet and you'll soon learn how to hold the yarn so that your stitches come out uniform.
That's all well and good so long as you aren't like my thirteen year old daughter who tried to make a square pillow and ended up with a very oddly shaped triangle with the same number of stitches at the end as when she began.
I never could explain tension and holding the yarn so that she understood. So I came up with this solution:
I threaded a bead onto her yarn. It was big enough that the yarn could easily pass through it, but still small enough she could easily keep it between her pinkie and the palm side of her hand. By doing this it forced her to keep a constant grip on the bead thus enabling her stitches to become regular row after row.
It worked for her and I hope it can work for other struggling beginners!

1 comment:

Sharon B in SA said...

HI! I am new to your blog- and was reading through-wanted to thank you for this brilliant idea! I have crocheted for many years and thankfully have no problem with gauge consistency, but know when I teach someone that is one of the big challenges! I am going to go raid my beads and find one/some to be ready for the next time I show someone how to crochet! Thank you so much for sharing! :)