Swatching for Ella

I had my first day back at work on Tuesday after the lovely extended Christmas break. On the way to work I stopped at the Post Office. To cheer me up along the way, this was waiting for me.

Luscious. Divine. Soft. Squishy. Droolworthy to the nth degree. I couldn't wait to get home and wind me up a skein to swatch.

I'm going to talk about my method to swatching. Yours might be different. Until I discovered knitting on the internet about 8 years ago, I never bothered. If the pattern called for 4mm needles, I used 4mm needles.

I also never wore any of my finished garments, because they never turned out quite right. I gave up on knitting garments, and knit a lot of scarves instead. And baby garments. If they're a little big, the baby will grow into them eventually, right? It never really occurred to me that the problem might be my gauge.

Until I tried to knit Emily a cabled cardigan about 9 years ago or so. The pattern called for 8ply (DK) doubled and 7mm needles. I ran out of yarn. Like, really, really short of yarn. From memory, I ended up having to buy about 4 extra balls of yarn. I went back to Spotlight and complained about the pattern, assuming they'd got the amount of yarn wrong. The assistant asked me if I'd checked my tension. I'm sure I looked at her blankly.

Then when I googled knitting all those fateful years ago and learned about knitting blogs, a whole new world opened up for me. Swatching? Blocking? My knitting underwent a metamorphosis.

Also, I learned that I'm a loose knitter. I always need to go down at least one needle size, sometimes more. No wonder my knitting had never turned out right!

So I now swatch for every single garment I knit. Every. Time. Scarves, socks, shawls? Bah, who cares! Garments? Always!

Here's what works for me.

First, I collect together every thing I need.

Yarn, pattern, needles in a few sizes. Usually the size called for (just in case), always a size smaller, and sometimes a size smaller than that.

Because I almost always get the correct tension on a needle one size smaller than recommended, I start swatching on that. In this case, the pattern calls for 5.5mm (US 9) needles, so I started with a 5mm (US 8).
Recommended tension is 18sts and 24 rows over 10cm (4").

My preferred swatch size is 15cm square. I think that a 10cm square is a little risky for measuring purposes. Sometimes my first or last stitch is a little loose and can be misleading, so to allow a little room for error, I like a 15cm square.
Also, I don't like to measure plain stockinette. It rolls, sometimes even after it's been blocked, so it's hard to measure. So I always add a little garter border to make measuring easier.

So in this case, I decided to cast on 33 stitches. 18sts x 1.5 (to make a 15cm square) = 27 stitches in stockinette, plus 3 sts either side for a garter border.

And off I go. First observation is that this yarn is so soft it's amazing. Doesn't feel like your ordinary, run-of-the-mill wool. But my swatch?

At this stage, it looks like it's coming out a little small - 5.5 or 5.75" instead of 6". I could stop now and go up to the recommended needle size, but I decide to finish the swatch and see.

I work 36 rows in stockinette. 24 rows = 10cm (4") in recommended gauge, so 24 x 1.5 = 36 rows. I then finish with a few rows of garter stitch for my border and I remeasure my swatch.

Uh oh. Right?

Wrong. It's a little on the small side, and some knitters would now decide to just use the larger needle. But I've been burned before, and I really want my Ella coat to fit nicely. I don't want it to be too small, but I don't want it to be too big, either.

If I'm putting in enough work to make a coat, I want it to fit right!

So the final step, which is just as vitally important as any other step is to block my swatch. Into a warm bubble bath it goes to soak for a little while, then I roll it up in a facecloth and wring out (gently!) the excess water, before I lay it out for a final measurement check.

I guess that warm bubble bath was just as relaxing as it looked. My swatch has grown. Not a lot, but just the right amount! My stitch tension is perfect. My row tension is a tiny bit short, but that's okay, most of the length is done by measurement instead of row count.

If I'd made a decision early on and gone up a needle size and not blocked my swatch, I'd end up with a coat that's too big for me. One stitch per 10cm can make a big difference! If you have 180 sts, and your tension should be 18 sts = 10cm, your garment would finish up 100cm. But if you're getting 17 sts = 10cm, your garment is going to end up nearly 106cm around. That could make a huge difference int he way your garment fits.

I'll probably throw the swatch into the washing machine on a gentle cycle to see if it felts before I finish the real thing. I don't want to ruin my garment later on!

There are no knitting police! Swatch using whatever method works for you. But I really recommend always doing a swatch.