How to Knit a Helpful Swatch – Part 3 Swatching in the Round

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:

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:

Nancy Wynn,  “How to do a Circular Gauge – Speed Method”: https://youtu.be/1W9XYgd3s7I

HowToCast: “How to Knit a Circular Gauge Swatch”:  https://youtu.be/E1z2pbRmddY

11 Gauge Swatch Secrets PLUS How to Swatch in the Round | Off Our Needles S3E1: https://youtu.be/tv7uy0HetrI

Related Post

10 in 201010 in 2010

I’ve signed on for a Ravelry group called “10 in 2010”. The idea is to identify 10 knitting projects you want to complete in 2010 and share your progress with the group. It’s a variation of a knit along.

So here is my “10 in 2010” project list:

  1. Baby Romper & Cardigan(from Dale of Norway – Baby 203) in Baby Ull
  2. EZ Green Sweater – because I want to learn to steek – yarn to be determined
  3. Manly Aran Socks (from Knitting More Circles around Socks) in Knit Picks Stoll – merlot colorway
  4. Finish Cable Rib Socks in Knit Picks Risata – baby doll colorway
  5. Socks for me using Zueberball yarn – pattern to be determined
  6. SFS Socks in Regia stretch – olive drab color
  7. Teddy Bear (from Debbie Bliss Toy Knits) – using Peaches & Cream yarn
  8. Socks using Brown Sheep Wildfoote yarn
  9. Socks using Debbie Norville Serenity Yarn
  10. Hat & matching scarf for me — yarn and pattern to be determined

This is an easy way to set some goals for knitting projects. If you are on Ravelry and are interested in joining, go to Groups and look for “10 in 2010”. Happy Knitting.

WIP: Baby Romper for New GrandsonWIP: Baby Romper for New Grandson

My first grandson is due January 30. I have already knit a couple of items for this coming grandchild – but I want to knit a romper and matching cardigan for him as well. I’ve posted about the swatches for the cardigan, but not about the romper.

BabyRomper_Legs1

I am about 50% done with the romper. I am using Baby Ull (Dale of Norway) in a navy blue colorway. The legs were knit using size US 0 (2.00 mm) needles and then once joined together for the hip section, knit using US 1 (2.50 mm) needles. Tiny needles, lots of stitches. The pattern is #203 from Dale of Norway.

I doubt I will get this done before the baby arrives – but since I am knitting the 12 months size, it shouldn’t matter if I finish it after he comes home from the hospital.

How to Knit a Helpful Swatch – Part 4 Swatching to Estimate Yardage NeededHow to Knit a Helpful Swatch – Part 4 Swatching to Estimate Yardage Needed

I have covered the basics of how to make a Gauge Swatch and calculate your stitch and row gauge in my previous three posts. Today’s topic will cover some basic math to help you estimate the yardage that you need using your yarn, your needles, and your gauge to make a sweater.

Let’s say you want to make a sweater using yarn from your stash and you need to know if you have enough to make it. To make this estimate, you need the measurements for the sweater you want to make. If you are using a pattern, the finished measurements should be stated within the pattern – ideally on a schematic. Some patterns may only state the desired measurements within the text of the pattern and you may have to read through to find them.  If you are making the sweater without using a pattern – you would use the measurements of the individual who will be wearing the sweater.

The image below shows a schematic for the back of a sweater of a drop sleeve sweater. The back is 28 inches long from the hem to the neck and it is 20 inches wide. Both the front and the back of this type of sweater are essentially rectangles. 

Schematic of Back/Front of Sweater

The schematic for the sleeves of this sweater are shown below.

Schematic of Sleeve

At this point, you have the numbers you need to calculate the number of square inches of fabric that you need to make for this sweater. For the front and back, multiply the length by the width on the schematic and then multiply that number by 2. Using the numbers from my example above:

20 * 28 = 560     560*2 = 1120  square inches for front and back.

The sleeve is a trapezoid shape. The formula for the area of a trapezoid is:

[(b1+b2) * h] / 2

Where b1 is the width at the bottom of the sleeve(8”) and b2 is the width at the top of the sleeve(15”) and h is the length of the sleeve(18”). Using the numbers from the sleeve schematic, the area for one sleeve is 207 square inches. Since you need two sleeves, you then need to multiply the area of the sleeve by two. (414 square inches)

Now, here’s a short cut – if you place your sleeves next to each other so that the tops of the sleeves are parallel – you have a parallelogram. To get the area of this parallelogram you simply multiple the width(15”+ 8” = 23”) by the length(18”). Try it – you’ll get the same number as above.

Add the square inches for the front and back to the square inches for the sleeves and you have the total number of square inches of fabric in the sweater. Now that you know the total number of square inches of fabric you need, you will need to use the yardage and weight information of the yarn you want to use to estimate how many skeins or balls of yarn your sweater requires. The yardage per weight of the yarn will be found on the yarn label – see image below:

You will use the yards per gram value in the estimate for total yardage. Now you need to knit a swatch. The swatch should be in the same stitch pattern that you plan to use for the body of your sweater. This swatch does not need to be the same size as your gauge swatch, but it should be wide enough and long enough to get an accurate weight, length and width measurement.  After you knit this swatch, you will measure its weight using a scale that measures to the nearest tenth (0.1) of a gram. Next measure the length and width of the swatch and multiply these values together. This gives you the number of square inches in your swatch. Now divide the number of grams by the number of square inches.(Do not round). You now know what 1 square inch of your yarn weighs. This is the number you need to calculate how much yardage you need for your sweater.

Example: My swatch measures 3.5 inches by 4.5 inches, which gives me 15.75 square inches. The swatch weighs 9.6 g. Dividing 9.6 by 15.76 gives me 0.622 g/square inch.

Here’s the final set of calculations:

Take the total number of square inches of fabric and multiply it by the number of grams per square inch. This gives you the total weight in grams for your sweater.

Total Number of Square Inches * grams/inch2  = Total grams of fabric

Total Grams/Square Inches = (1120 + 414) * 0.622 = 954.148 g

Now take the yards per gram value from the yarn label. (For example 218 yds/100grams). Divide the yds by the grams to get the number of yards in 1 gram of yarn.  (For example: 218yards/100grams = 2.18 yards per gram.)  Multiply the total number of grams of fabric by the number of yards per gram to get the total yardage for the sweater. Using the numbers from the examples above:

Yards per gram = 2.18 yds/g

Total Yards of Yarn = 954.148 * 2.18 = 2080 yds

To determine the number of skeins, balls or hanks of yarn you need: Divide the number of yards by the number of yards in the skein. Or divide the total number of grams by the number of grams of the skein.  Remember that you will want one extra skein for swatching. (In my example, I would need 9.5 skeins, so I would want 11 skeins with one extra for swatching)

What to do if you don’t have the yarn label

To determine how many yards of yarn you have when you do not have the yarn label or any information, simply measure out 10 yards of your yarn and weigh it. Divide the weight by 10 and you have the weight for 1 yard of yarn. Now weigh the skeins/hanks of yarn and multiply by the weight of 1 yard.  This will give you the number of yards for each skein/hank.


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