Tuesdays Wednesdays Thursdays are for teaching

Not posted until Sunday due to technical difficulties.

Hey, it starts with a "t" at least. This week, let's talk about one of the most basic building blocks of a successful finished item: the gauge swatch.

Gauge is the number of stitches and/or rows per inch you knit. It varies with yarn, needle size (and sometimes brand!), and stitch pattern. Gauge is important because it determines how big your finished item will be, and you can adjust it to meet your needs by changing needles, yarn, or both. You should also be aware of hand`, which is how the fabric drapes. Sometimes, in order to get gauge, you will have adjusted so far one way or the other that you have a fabric that's way too loose or one that's stiff as a board. One of my favorite sweaters to knit is one of my least favorite to wear because I worried more about gauge than hand and it's extremely stiff. I'll talk next week about what to do if this happens to you.

This is definitely one of those "do as I say, not as I do" kind of lessons. Sorry about that. I truly hate gauge swatches. I rarely do a full one. However, this has led to many a too big sweater, lots of wasted yarn, time spent on knitting badly fitting sweaters, and a whole whack of other frustrating things that could have been avoided if only I had taken the time to properly swatch. To (hopefully) save you from making the same mistakes I have do, I shall describe the proper and correct way of making a gauge swatch.

First, your gauge swatch needs to be reasonably sizable. Most books will give you a guideline of 4"x4", but I think it really depends on the yarn and pattern. A better way to determine how big your swatch should be is to consider what you need to find out: are you just looking for stitches and or rows per inch? Will you need to wash this swatch to see how the yarn behaves (always a good idea if you're working with a yarn you're not familiar with)? Are you swatching a lace or cable pattern? Will you be knitting the item in the round (many people get a different gauge when they knit in the round than they do when they knit flat. Has something to do with their purling. Also, gauge is often different on DPNs than circulars.) I think a better place to start than 4x4 is 40x40 -- 40 stitches by 40 rows (not including a garter stitch border of 4 rows top and bottom and 4 stitches on each side to keep the swatch flat...and now that I think about it, I'm not sure I agree with this, either. I feel like adding the garter stitch makes the stitches in between behave a little differently than they would if they were bordered by, say, 1x1 ribbing. So, garter or not as you choose. Experiment. One of the beauties of knitting is that if you screw up or aren't happy with what you've got, you can almost always reuse the yarn for something else.).

Now, if you're swatching a lace pattern that has a 12 stitch repeat, you can choose to do 36 st or 48 st -- the knitting police will not come to your house and count the stitches in your gauge swatches. If they did I'd be rotting in the Black Hole of Calcutta. If you're making a swatch specifically to find out how it reacts to washing, a larger swatch might be in order, especially if you're using a fine yarn. If you're knitting in the round on circulars, you may need to cast on more stitches (obviously, you won't include the edge garter stitches here, just the border on the top and bottom, if that's how you roll). Remember not to substitute DPNs for circulars, as your gauge may well be different on the two types of needles.

Finally, you should have a large enough swatch to measure over at least 2 inches. (Most sources say four. I disagree, especially for very fine yarn in stockingette stitch. YMMV.) Don't fudge when you count -- a half stitch is a half stitch. It doesn't seem like it makes a big difference when you're swatching, but it can add (or subtract) several inches from your final product. Use the stitches in the middle when you're measuring -- they'll be the least distorted.

Other stuff:

I'm in the process of fixing up Chez Knot. You've probably noticed the fancy progress meters over on the side there, and I'm going to be adding a third column over on the left that will be a Becky gallery. That way you won't have to wait until the next post to get a Becky update, and I won't have to wait until I have Becky pics to write an entry (which I do, lots). That should be up and running over the weekend sometime soon (I hope).

Speaking of Becky pics:

posted by Laura Y. @ 10:32 AM