It may not be as fun as jumping right in to your new project, but making a swatch to check your gauge is essential. You don’t want to do hours and hours of work only to find out the gauge is off and have to frog (unravel) and start over again. Patterns will give a gauge but it can vary even if you use the same needles and the exact same yarn as the pattern because everyone knits at their own individual tension.
It really is easy to do. Cast on a few more stitches than the gauge and knit for a little over 4 inches in length. Ok, I confess that is what’s usually recommended, but I cheat. What I usually do is about 15-20 sts, knit for about 2″ and calculate gauge against 1″. That usually requires a little math. Pick either and when you finish, lay the swatch flat and measure against a ruler or knitting gauge tool to see how many stitches make up an inch and how many rows make up an inch. Compare your numbers to the pattern’s gauge.
If your gauge is different than the pattern’s, the easiest thing to do is change the recommended needle size. If you have more stitches/rows per inch than the pattern, you will need to use bigger needles than stated in the pattern. If you have fewer stitches/rows per inch, you will need smaller needles. If you do use a different needle size than the pattern, you really need to make another swatch and check again. Trust me, it’s well worth the little extra time and effort.
a Roll Top Shortie Sock
aSporty Ped
Easy Lace-Look Scarf
Dogknitty Button
Sonny & Shear
aHip Cat Fiberworks
aLapdog Creations
aLime and Violet
Amylovie’s Nuttin’ but Knittin’
aPDXknitterati
aRed Dog knits
aTiggywinkle Knits
aClick to give free food and care.
Ravelry (find me there at “addicted2knittin”)
