I panic if a pattern casually says, decrease evenly by blah blah blah stitches over the next 15 rows or inches. If I sat down with a pen and paper for long enough I could probably work it out. The truth is, I’m lazy and not that clever or patient with numbers, so I’ve looked for some tools to help me.
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There are goodness knows how many Android and Iphone apps aimed at yarn lovers, this one’s one of my favourites. It’s an Android and Iphone app that helps you easily calculate gauge. But there’s more! it also calculates,
“Adjust your gauge – for the pattern you are working with
Calculate your end goals –
– How many stitches will you need to get 10 inches with your gauge?
– How wide/long will it be when you work x stitches and y rows?
– How many repeats do you need to get certain length or number of stitches?”
This is a fantastic tool that figures out how often to increase or decrease over a given number of rows. It’ll help you to answer the following example questions,
“If I want to decrease 14 stitches over 6 inches, how many rows should I work between decreases?”
“My pattern needs me to increase 6 stitches evenly over a row containing 37 stitches. How often do I increase?”
“I want to knit a piece 18 inches wide and 30 inches long. How many stitches should I cast on and how many rows should I work?”
This tool will save you a lot of brainache.
This calculator has the same function as the How Many..? tool plus several other handy calculations.
“This little wonder widget takes you through the steps we’ve been talking about in our Waist Shaping 101 mini-course and does the math for you! It asks you for all the pertinent information: stitch and row gauge, hip/waist/bust measurements, desired ease, and the necessary vertical measurements, then gives you stitch counts, row counts, and fills in the blanks for such things as “work decrease row every X row Y times“
Be sure to check out the how to use page.
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So there you have it, three handy tools, what tools have you discovered?
Scarlet Dash Blog 
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