Gauge conversion calculator

There are two ways out of a swatch that does not match the pattern: change the needle until it does, or keep your needle and change the numbers. The Craft Yarn Council recommends the first, and it is the right advice when the fabric itself is wrong. But when the fabric is exactly what you want and only the count is off, rewriting the count is the honest fix — and it is one division and one multiplication, which is what this page does for every number in the pattern.

How it is worked out

your stitches = (pattern stitches ÷ pattern gauge) × your gauge

Dividing by the pattern gauge turns a stitch count into a width, and multiplying by yours turns that width back into stitches you can knit. The swatch side cancels out, so it does not matter whether both gauges were counted over 10 cm or over 4 inches — as long as it is the same for both.

Source: two densities across one width

Questions people ask

Should I do this or reknit the swatch?

Look at the fabric, not the numbers. If the swatch is loose and floppy or dense and boardy, the needle is wrong and you should change it — that is what the Council means when it says to go up or down a size or two. If the fabric feels right and the count simply differs, converting the pattern keeps the fabric you liked. That choice is yours to make and no calculator can make it for you.

Does this fix the whole pattern?

It fixes every count that runs across the fabric: cast-on, stitch counts between markers, the width of a chart repeat. It does not fix row counts, shaping intervals or yarn quantity. Rows need your row gauge run through the same arithmetic, and yarn goes up with the area, so a garment knitted looser eats more yarn per stitch even when it uses fewer stitches.

What about the stitch pattern repeat?

The converted number is rarely a multiple of the repeat. Round it to the nearest multiple, plus whatever edge stitches the pattern asks for, and check what that rounding costs in width — usually a few millimetres, occasionally a whole size. This is where the third figure on this page helps: it tells you how much room you have to round in.

The pattern gives gauge over 4 inches but I measured over 10 cm. Does it matter?

For this calculation, only if you mix them: the swatch side cancels out when both gauges use it, and does not cancel when they differ. Four inches is 10.16 cm, so mixing them quietly adds 1.6% — the wrong way round from the error you were trying to fix. Convert one to the other first, or re-count your swatch over the same distance the pattern used.

Why is the ease different from what I expected?

Because this page preserves the pattern's measurements, not its fit on you. If the sweater was designed with 10 cm of positive ease and you wanted 5, converting to your gauge will faithfully reproduce the 10 cm. Decide the finished measurement you want first, then use the gauge calculator to turn it into stitches.

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