I still have far too many works in progress! I have made some headway on them, but I keep wanting to start more and find myself having to exercise some mental discipline. For now, I will not start any more projects until I finish the following:
Lace Scarf for DIL (nearly 50% completed)
Regulation Socks – SFS (ready to start the heel)
I am also prioritizing the projects that I have planned and for which I have purchased yarn. I hope this will keep me from my insane tendency to have too many projects on needles. In order of priority, the planned projects are: 1) Textured Scarf for DD; 2) Striped Scarf for JC; 3) Baby Sweater and Romper for new grandchild; 4) Regulation hat for SFS. The first two are Christmas presents, so I hope to start them sometime this month.
I have also decided that there are some WIPs that can just sit patiently on their needles and wait for a time when I am ready to pick them up and finish them. These are projects without any identified recipients or times for completion: So the Cable Rib Socks (for me), the two shawls and a “Moderne Baby Blanket” currently on needles are on hold for now.
Now, I just have to avoid the temptation of yarn shops and yarn sections in craft stores…
In my previous post, I discussed how to make a preliminary swatch to select the size needle that gives you a fabric that you like and then how to knit a gauge swatch. The gauge swatch is measured to give you your stitch gauge (stiches per inch) and your row gauge (rows per inch).
At this point, you might think you are ready to cast on and begin knitting your sweater – BUT….
Are you planning on using some type of ribbing for the bottom, cuffs and neckline of the garment? Are you planning on using a certain textured stitch pattern, a lace pattern or cables in your sweater? Will you be combining two or more stitch patterns in the body of the sweater? If the answer to any of these questions is “yes”, then you need to do more swatching.
Swatches with Borders: Have you ever knit something with a definite edge made by knitting either garter stitch or seed stitch and then found that the edges curl? The reason this happens is usually due to a difference in gauge between the stitch pattern used for the border and the stitch pattern used for the body. Thus, if you are knitting piece with a border that is different than the body of the piece, knitting a swatch with the borders on it provides you with an opportunity to make adjustments to minimize or eliminate the problem. Suzanne Bryan has a nice video on this that you may find helpful, here’s the link:
Note: I don’t recommend using garter stitch borders on gauge swatches even though others do. The border tends to distort the swatch and may affect the accuracy of your measurements.
Swatches of Ribbing: Ribbing by nature tends to “pull in”. Which means that 30 stitches of ribbing will have a smaller width than 30 stitches of stockinette stitch. How much of a difference can be quite significant and affect the way the garment fits around the hips and neck as well as around the wrists on a long sleeve. Also, some knitters find that their ribbing stitches appear larger than their stockinette stitches due to changes in tension. One solution for this is to use a smaller needle when ribbing – but if you do that you may need to have more stitches to get the right width of fabric for a proper fit. Knitting a swatch with your selected ribbing pattern followed by a transition to the stitch being used for the body of the sweater will provide you with the information you need to decide what you want to do. You might want to knit separate swatches with different ribbing patterns to select which ribbing you prefer to use in your garment. (You don’t have to use the same ribbing that the designer did for the pattern if you don’t want to…just saying.)
Swatches of Stitch Patterns:
In this post, stitch patterns refer to textured pattern stitches, lace patterns, cable patterns, etc. Basically any grouping of stitches that combine to make a pattern from the variations in stitches used.
I think making a swatch of the stitch patterns used in a written pattern provides a great deal of useful information about how the finished garment will look and feel – and fit! It’s also good practice before doing it as part of your finished item.
Keep in mind that most written patterns only give gauge in stockinette stitch and while that tells you what the designer’s gauge is – it does not tell you how the gauge changes in the stitch pattern(s) used in knitting the garment. If you find a written pattern that states the gauge of the stitch pattern – great. But does your gauge match that? Swatching is the only way you will know.
If you are only using one stitch pattern, then knitting a swatch with two or more pattern repeats will help you figure out how the pattern affects the width and length of the garment and what adjustment you might need to make to obtain the correct size of garment you want. If you combine it with your ribbing, you will see how the ribbing affects the transition to the main fabric of the garment.
If you are combining more than one stitch pattern within the main fabric of a garment, I recommend doing individual swatches for each stitch pattern to use as a gauge swatches.
Crest of Wave Lace Pattern
Garter Stitch
Embossed Moss Stitch Ribbing
Then to see what happens when the stitch patterns are combined, you should do a swatch large enough to include all of the stitch patterns used in the order you plan to use them. This may end up being a very large swatch – even enough stitches for the back of your garment. This type of swatch will provide you with a lot of helpful information and give you insight into what adjustments you might need to make for a great fitting garment. More on this in a later post.
It took me a good bit of time to decide if I thought it was necessary to knit swatches in the round if I was knitting an item in the round rather than flat. The practice of knitting sweaters flat in pieces that are sewn together versus knitting sweaters in the round is, in itself, a whole topic with proponents for each practice. I may take this topic up at a later time, but for now I will focus on knitting a swatch in the round.
First, there are many knitters and designers who only use gauge swatches knit flat to determine their stitch gauge even if the pattern is knit in the round, and second, most patterns do not state how the gauge swatch was done. All you see in the pattern is the gauge statement.
Do you know if your gauge is the same if you knit in the round as when you knit flat? There’s a good chance that it’s not. As I’ve said before, gauge is a measure of how an individual knitter knits.
Think about how you knit when you knit in the round. One of the biggest differences is that you only knit on the right side of the fabric when you knit in the round. Using stockinette stitch as an example: When you knit flat, you knit one row (right side) and then turn your work and purl the next (wrong side). When you knit in the round, you join the stitches to make a circle and then knit every round.
Now, if you are one of the many knitters whose purls are looser than their knits, there is going to be a difference in tension between something you knit flat and something you knit in the round. Plus, you may modify your technique for knitting when knitting in round from when you knit flat. If you use straight needles when knitting flat, then switch to using circular needles or double point needles (dpns) to knit circular – your gauge may be significantly different. This is why I have come to the conclusion that it is good practice to swatch in the round when planning a project that will be knit in the round.
So how does one knit a swatch in the round? The first method is to cast on a enough stitches to give you a knitted tube that will be at least 4+ inches when laid flat. This could be the start of a sock or a hat. (Elizabeth Zimmerman said that “a hat makes a good swatch”.) Once you have a tube knitted of sufficient length for a good measurement, you treat this swatch the same way you would if your swatch that was knitted flat – i.e. measure, block, re-measure.
The second method goes by a couple of different names: “Speed Swatch” and “Circular Swatch with Floats” are two that I have found in my research. In this method, you use a circular needle and cast on the same number of stitches you would if you were knitting flat. But instead of knitting a row and then turning the swatch and knitting back to the end of the row, you slide your stitches to the needle on the opposite end and strand the working yarn loosely across the back and start knitting the next row. You keep repeating this process until you have a long enough swatch for good measurements. See pictures below:
Front of Swatch ITR — Knit with US 8 and Us 7 Needles
Back of Swatch ITR
Once you have the swatch completed, you treat it the same way as any swatch – measure unblocked, block, re-measure. A note about measuring this swatch: Some sources suggest that it is easier to measure this swatch after cutting the loose strands so that the swatch will lay flat. Others simply say to measure the swatch by laying it as flat as you can. Logically, you are not going to want to cut the strands if you plan to reuse the yarn in the swatch. I’ve tried both ways and did not find a significant difference in measurements. Here are pictures of the swatch above after I blocked it and cut the floats to take the measurements:
So if you plan to knit a sweater in the round, please do your swatch in the round.
If you would like to see a video on this technique, here are three helpful ones:
A Provisional Cast On is a method for making a temporary cast on that can be removed later. The method I use requires a crochet hook and either waste yarn or an extra cable from a circular needle. If you are using waste yarn, you should use a slippery yarn in a contrasting color so that the cast on stitches can be easily removed.
Where this cast on is used:
Knitting hems or edges where you want to add a border or knit in the opposite direction
Knitting scarves when you want the ends to be identical
To make the Provisional Cast On use a crochet hook the same size equivalent as your knitting needle. Start by making a slip knot with waste yarn and placing it on the crochet hook.(This does not count as a stitch.) Hold your knitting needle in your left hand and the crochet hook in your right hand. Make a stitch over the needle or cable by holding the yarn strand under the needle and taking the crochet hook over the needle, grabbing the strand and pulling it through the loop on the crochet hook. Repeat this process until you have the desired number of stitches.
If you are a crocheter, you can do a Provisional Cast On by making a crochet chain and then knitting into the bumps on the back of the chain. Tips: 1) Make the chain longer than the desired number of stitches; 2) Use a crochet hook one or two sizes larger than the knitting needle you will be using to make it easier to go into the bumps.
