It is important to know your stitch and row gauge to calculate how many stitches should be pick up along a row edge.

Determining your Knitting Gauge

20 stitches	divided by	Measurment of this distance	=	Stitch gauge (spi)
20 rows	divided by	Measurment of this distance	=	Row gauge (rpi)

Let's say your stitch gauge is 5 stitches per inch. (5spi) Your row gauge is 8 rows per inch. (8rpi) For every 8 rows along the edge you pick up 5 stitches. The calculation is easy if you are working with whole numbers, but what if your stitch and row gauge are something like 3.5 spi and 4.7 rpi. Now we have to determine the percentage difference between the two. Once we have the percentage you will turn this number into a fraction that is used as the stitch to row ratio.

Determining percentage of row height to stitch width

Stitch Gauge

divided by

Row Gauge

=

% of rows to stitches

Example

3.5 spi

divided by

4.7 rpi

=

74%

Determine how many stitches to pick up along a row edge.

The percentage number you just arrived at can be rounded up to one of the percentage numbers in this chart. The fraction below this number is the stitches to row ratio.

Percentage	60%	63%	66%	71%	75%	77%	80%	86%	88%
sts/rows	3/5	5/8	2/3	5/7	3/4	7/9	4/5	6/7	7/8

If you are picking up stitches to knit a ribbing, and most of the time we are, then it makes logical sense to know what your ribbing gauge is to determine how many ribbing stitches will be picked up into a row edge.

Now for those of you who are purest, and want your project to be absolutly accurate, you will need to knit another swatch of ribbing to determine your ribbing gauge. Make sure you are using the appropriate size needle when knitting your ribbing. Ususally you use a smaller size needle to knit the ribbing. Refer to your patterns for this information.