Crochet 102: Gauge & The Golden Loop

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Hello, my crochet friends!

A while ago, I released a series of photo and video tutorials called Crochet 101 for those starting from absolute scratch learning crochet. But as time has gone on, I know that in order to help you become more adept at crochet, we need to go a little farther to better understand how to use our stitch knowledge to make a pattern.

Psst! If you aren’t yet familiar with all of the basic stitches, check out my Crochet 101 series here.

Once you learn those basic stitches, you’ll want to try your hand at a pattern, and rightly so! To aid you on that journey, I’ve come up with a series of videos aimed to help you go deeper with your crochet knowledge to ensure that you can confidently make any pattern you put your mind to. It’s my goal to help you understand a bit more of the intricacies that make those projects work and how to make them your own. From understanding gauge to changing colors, the videos in this series will help you toward that finished project.

Every tutorial will feature both a photo and a video tutorial, so whether you learn best from photos or watching someone do it live, I’ve got you covered. In each of these tutorials, I take a deep dive into common crochet terms associated with them and the mechanics of the techniques involved. Here are the topics I plan to release and I will update with links in each of the posts when new tutorials are live.

• Gauge and the Golden Loop – Today’s tutorial!
• Yarn Substitutions and WPI
• Changing Colors in Crochet
• Blocking

Crochet Speak

The below terms will be used throughout this tutorial series. As we proceed with each new Crochet 102 tutorial, I will be adding to this list as needed to understand the concept being taught. You will see these terms in the video tutorial, the photos that follow, as well as defined for you below.

From This Tutorial:

Tension: how tightly or how loosely you work your stitches
Gauge: the measurement of tension, portrayed as the number of stitches and the number of rows in a given measurement of fabric
Golden Loop: the first loop on your hook after pulling up a loop through a stitch; controls the height of a stitch

Gauge & the Golden Loop

Sounds like the name of a fairy tale, doesn’t it? I must say, all the best fairy tales involve yarn. 😉

In this tutorial, we are going to talk all about gauge: what is it and why is it important. I’ll also show you how to measure your gauge and make adjustments where necessary.

Video Tutorial

Learn better watching and listening in real time? I’ve recorded a video for this tutorial as well!

Gauge: What is it and why is it important?

You ever have that problem where you’ve followed the pattern perfectly, using the same hook size and even the same recommended yarn from the pattern but still your project comes out too big or too small, too short or too tall (hello Dr. Seuss)? Or maybe you’re making a blanket and bought the recommended amount of yarn and as you work, you realize that it’s working out a little bigger than you’d thought it would and to make it long enough, you need more yarn. Well, that comes down to gauge, or more specifically tension.

When I say tension, I don’t mean like when you’re in the middle of a good book and the story is building and you have to know what happens next. I’m talking about your crochet tension.

Tension: How tightly or how loosely you work your stitches

But what does that mean in a measurable way? Tension and gauge can almost be used interchangeably, but for the purpose of a full and clear explanation, gauge is the measurement of tension.

Gauge: The measurement of tension, portrayed as the number of stitches and the number of rows in a given measurement of fabric

So, when you’re making wearables or when you need a piece to meet specific measurements, like individual motifs to be joined together later, even if you’re only off by a little, over the course of thousands of stitches, you could end up being off by a lot. So when size matters, gauge matters. Matching the designer’s gauge in the pattern is going to make sure that your piece works out to the right size and that you use roughly the same amount of yarn given in the pattern to do so.

Tip: Make a gauge swatch before starting, but don’t stop at that. Continually monitor your gauge as you work to ensure consistency.

The thing is, everybody’s tension is different. We are all unique in this way. In fact, our personal tension can vary day to day based on any number of reasons. There are a number of factors that can influence your tension:

• How you hold your yarn and/or hook
  • How many times do you wrap your working yarn when holding it?
  • Are you a knife grip or a pencil grip?
• Yarn fiber, finish, texture, ply, and/or weight
  • Are you using wool or bamboo, cotton or acrylic?
  • Is the texture rough or slippery?
  • Are the plies tight or loosely twisted?
  • Yarn weight (how thick or thin the yarn is) can vary even within the same weight category.
• Hook material
  • Are you using wood, plastic, or aluminum?
• Even your mood!
  • I had to rip out multiple rows once because I was listening to a suspenseful part of an audiobook and my tension tightened up so much!

All of these things effect how much friction is generated when the yarn glides over your hook, and that can effect tension. Well, mood doesn’t effect friction, but it does effect your grip, so there’s that.

How to Measure Gauge

Most commonly, patterns will give you a gauge for the pattern written in a measurement of 4″ (10 cm), written as 4″ = # sts x # rows. This means that 4″ worth of stitches yields that # and that 4″ high counts that # of rows. For example, in the swatch below, the gauge would be written as: 4″ = 11 hdc x 9 rows.

When you’re ready to work up your gauge swatch, be sure to start with the same hook size and yarn weight recommended in the pattern. If it gives you a specific pattern to follow for a gauge swatch, then proceed as written. Typically, though, it will give you a stitch type and you’ll just work up a swatch of that stitch, like half double crochet above.

Make your swatch slightly larger than the given measurement in the pattern. For example, if your pattern gives gauge in a 4″ measurement, make your swatch 5″. This is a lesson I learned the hard way. Edge stitches are inconsistent and should not be used when measuring gauge. Making your swatch larger than given allows you to measure the stitches in the center of the swatch, which will lead to a more accurate representation of your tension.

When your gauge swatch is finished, grab your ruler or measuring tape. If you like my gauge ruler (made for me by my stepdad, isn’t it cute?), you can find several like it on Etsy, like this one or this cool folding one. To measure, line up your ruler across the bottom of the Vs of your stitches and count how many stitches you fit into 4″. Similarly, line your ruler up vertically and count how many rows you fit into 4″. This is where it comes in handy understanding the anatomy of your stitches so you ensure you’re counting full rows and stitches. If you need help with that, check out my Crochet 101 series.

I’m off, now what?

If you find yourself off on the number of stitches, the number of rows, or both, you can use the following tricks to help get you where you need to be. Meeting gauge can be tedious trial and error and take a lot of time, but I promise it wastes less time than frogging your entire project. 😉

Adjusting the Number of Stitches

Adjusting for the number of stitches is the easy part. Generally speaking, you can fix this by changing your hook size up or down accordingly. Depending on how much or how little you’re off by, you can make a large or small jump in hook size. The rule of thumb here is:

Of course, if you’re adjusting the hook size and still not making it, you may need to consider other the other factors listed above. If you’re too tight using a wood hook, maybe try switching to a metal hook, which has less friction when the yarn glides over it. Conversely, If you’re too loose using a metal hook, maybe try switching to a wood hook, which has more friction when the yarn glides over it.

If you’re still having problems, try changing to a different yarn in the same weight category. There is a lot of variance between yarns in a single given category. Take, for example, the two swatches below. Both are CYC 4 Medium weight worked up with the same number of half double crochets for the same number of rows using the same hook. The green swatch is slightly bigger all around. Why? Well, when studied more closely, I noticed several differences which caused them to work up differently.

Even within the same weight category, yarns can vary dramatically due to the factors listed above. I’ve even come across instances where two different colors of the same brand and line of yarn had different gauges because they absorbed the dye differently and it effected the density of the yarn. It blew my mind at the time.

I’ll have more about yarn substitutions in the next tutorial in this series, so if you want to learn more about that, stay tuned!

Adjusting the Number of Rows

What about when your row count is off? Well, that’s a bit trickier because it means changing your natural rhythm of working the stitches. It’s not as simple as going up or down a hook size because hook size really only determines the width of your stitches, not the height. So what effects the height of your stitches and how do you change that?

The height of your stitches is based on how you hold the yarn when you’re working your stitches, whether you’re pulling on the yarn as you work or lifting it up with the hook, called being a yanker or a lifter, respectively. To illustrate this, the three swatches below are made with the same hook, same yarn and same number of half double crochets and same number of rows, but they are very obviously different sizes. The smallest one (top) was made by yanking, the largest one (bottom) was made by lifting, and the mid-sized one (middle) was somewhere between those extremes.

The smallest swatch with tighter small rows will fit more rows in a given measurement than either of the other two. Conversely, the largest swatch with looser tall rows will fit less rows in a given measurement than either of the other two.

The Golden Loop

The answer to the question of how to change the height of your stitches has to do with something called the golden loop.

Golden Loop: the first loop on your hook after pulling up a loop through a stitch; controls the height of your stitch.

Whether you’re working a single, half double, double, treble crochet or whatever, you will always have a golden loop. The photo below shows working rows of single, half-double, and double crochet with arrows indicating the golden loop in each scenario, always the far left loop which was pulled up through the stitched being worked into.

Depending on how short or tall you make this loop will determine the height of the stitch you’re working. If you keep that loop shorter, your stitch will be shorter. If you make it taller, your stitch will be taller. This is best illustrated in the video above, starting right around the 9:36 mark, but you can also see in the picture below how the half-double crochets start smaller on the right and get larger toward the left. All are half-double crochets made with the same hook, the only difference being the length of the golden loop.

The trick is going to be finding that happy height that gets you to match gauge. It will still be some trial and error, but the rule of thumb here is:

Once you’ve found the golden loop height that matches gauge, you’ll need to pay close attention to your work to ensure you don’t fall back into your normal rhythms. I recommend periodically checking your gauge as you work your pattern to ensure consistency. I gray-boxed that tip earlier for a reason. 😉

That’s it for gauge!

I hope this post helped you understand more about gauge and tension and how to adjust to meet pattern requirements! If you have any questions, drop them below and I’ll reply ASAP!

Next up in the series I’ll be talking about wraps per inch (WPI) and how it will help you make more informed yarn substitutions. Until then, keep practicing and learning!

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