Here's a good go at a gauge swatch. Will it tell lies?
Were you betrayed by a knitting gauge swatch? Holy wool, is there no justice? If you dutifully knit and measured a gauge swatch despite your eagerness to cast on for your project, why doesn’t the darn sweater fit? How on earth did the dirty no-good lying gauge swatch ruin your sweater? Sad to say, but even the best knitters encounter gauge swatches that lie.
Here are the top six reasons a gauge swatch lies.
- Your emotional state.
- Your yarn color.
- Your swatch’s stitch pattern.
- Your measuring tool.
- Your gauge swatch size.
- You washed and dried it, right?
You think you’re in an emotional state now with a finished sweater you can’t wear, but your emotions while knitting both the swatch and sweater can make a difference to the success of your project.
If you resent the time a gauge swatch takes before you start your project, you may knit the swatch tighter out of peevishness or hurry-scurry. Or you may knit your swatch more loosely, figuring it’s a short-term thing you’ll rip out or throw away and needn’t be your best work. Yikes!
What? Yes. If you knitted with the same size needles and same yarn in the past but in a different color, you need to swatch again. Some dye colors add thickness to the yarn. (In my sad experience, black is a yarn-fattening culprit.)
Did your knitwear designer make it clear whether you should measure a stockinette swatch–or one in the stitch pattern? They could be radically different.
Elizabeth Zimmermann, mother of all knitters, recommended you use a stiff ruler instead of a flexible measuring tape. I’m not about to argue with EZ’s vast experience. How about you?
If you make a wee swatch, gravity will have little effect upon it. A larger swatch will have weight and possible drape, just like your sweater.
This annoying, time-consuming step makes a tremendous difference sometimes. The yarn can relax, soften and bloom, thus affecting the character and gauge of the fabric. Or it may lose some sizing you didn’t know was there. Not only will you get a more accurate gauge measuring a washed swatch, you’ll discover what the fabric will be like in the finished sweater.
As a bonus, doing the gauge swatch shows you which knitting needle works best with the yarn before you cast on hundreds of stitches on a needle that fights with you.
Best,
Karen
P.S.
Elizabeth Zimmermann would knit a hat in lieu of a gauge swatch. Besides telling her truthfully everything she wanted to know about the yarn before she made the sweater, it would be useful and fit someone’s head!
