Usually you want to measure texture how it's going to be worn... So I would not stretch the ribbing out before gauging it.
For a beret you want a lot of "negative ease" in the band. So head measurement minus 20-25% otherwise the weight of the large top pushes it down your nose.
What I would suggest as an easy starting point is to take your stockinette gauge and then do your ribbing on a needle one size smaller. So if you have 5 stitches to the inch, you want a slanty beret for the standard head size of 22inches. You'd want 110 stitches minus about 20-25% (22-27.5) so you'd want about 85 stitches for a beret band. (84 or 86 since you're doing 1x1 ribbing)
My current hat has those numbers. I cast on with #9s, I did the ribbing in #6, and I am doing the body in #7. To a certain extent that's a magic handwaving thing and doesn't explain why this works, but I do not like to make several gauge squares for the same project.
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Date: 2010-06-27 06:16 am (UTC)For a beret you want a lot of "negative ease" in the band. So head measurement minus 20-25% otherwise the weight of the large top pushes it down your nose.
What I would suggest as an easy starting point is to take your stockinette gauge and then do your ribbing on a needle one size smaller. So if you have 5 stitches to the inch, you want a slanty beret for the standard head size of 22inches. You'd want 110 stitches minus about 20-25% (22-27.5) so you'd want about 85 stitches for a beret band. (84 or 86 since you're doing 1x1 ribbing)
My current hat has those numbers. I cast on with #9s, I did the ribbing in #6, and I am doing the body in #7. To a certain extent that's a magic handwaving thing and doesn't explain why this works, but I do not like to make several gauge squares for the same project.