Grading

But lately, I’ve seen some patterns try to take a shortcut on sizing by just advising knitters to increase or decrease their gauge to make a larger or smaller size. I’m not talking about patterns where there is an entire carefully plotted grid of different stitch and row counts to allow people to knit the same design in several different gauges and do it well. I’m talking about sock patterns that say things like, “to make a larger size, just go up one needle size.”

I think that’s a bad idea. Here’s why.