Here’s a handy-dandy online calculator to help you figure out how many stitches you’ll need to get a particular width while matching a stitch multiple.
What You’ll Need to Know
- Your stitch gauge in stitches per inch, or stitches per 4″, or stitches per 10 cm, or some other width
- How wide you want your piece to be (or what circumference you want it to be)
- The stitch multiple, stated as “a multiple of X + Y”. In this case X is the “multiple” and Y is the “plus” number.
What You’ll Find Out
- How many stitches you’d need to get the exact width or circumference you want, even if if doesn’t work with your stitch multiple
- The number of stitches you’d need to get close to the exact width or circumference you want, in a number that does work with your stitch multiple, but may be slightly smaller
- The number of stitches you’d need to get close to the exact width or circumference you want, in a number that does work with your stitch multiple, but may be slightly larger
Try this on the calculator: You stitch a swatch that is 6″ [15 cm] wide. You count the number of stitches across 4″ [10 cm] WIDTH and come up with 18 STITCHES. Your stitch pattern has a MULTIPLE of 6 PLUS 4, and you want a piece that is 40″ [101.6 cm] TARGET WIDTH.
180 Stitches (Target stitches) would give you the exact width you want in inches, but it would give you a 29.33 repeats of the pattern. We want the repeat to be a whole number.
178 stitches (Lower estimate) works with the stitch multiple, and so does 184 stitches (Upper estimate). As the designer, you get to decide which of those numbers is going to work best in your situation.
