Measuring gauge for 1x1 rib

[afuna]

I'm trying to figure out how to measure gauge for 1x1 rib, and I'm running into issues figuring out what to do with the stretch. Should I measure it stretched, compacted, or loosely together on the needle?

If it makes any difference, this is for a hat (pattern: Greentrelac Beret) -- only my second time doing a hat, and I didn't have to measure gauge for the first one, so I'm not sure how to go about this one now.

Comments

[rhivolution]

I would say about halfway, personally. Usually the pattern will say how it's supposed to be measured, though, so it's hard to say.

[gloss]

"Slightly stretched". So not crammed together, but not so stretched that the purl valleys are the same width as the knit peaks. Does that make sense?

[seryn]

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.