Gauge Dork
I know that gauge is a contentious subject among knitters. Perhaps not as contentious as art vs. craft…but contentious nonetheless. (I do encourage you to read Ms. Mitchard’s article yourself – I am completely prepared to admit that I’m being hypersensitive.)
Some knitters – usually the kind who get along with math – think that gauge is the Rosetta Stone of knitting. Once you know your gauge, all else follows in a logical progression.
Some knitters are superstitious. They think that knitting a gauge swatch is a sacrifice – of yarn, time, and frustration – to the Knitting Goddess. They believe that, regardless of how the math works out, having knit the gauge swatch protects them from knitting catastrophe.
Some knitters are practical. It’s nice to know what a given yarn is going to do before you cast on 240 stitches. When presented with a new yarn, they’ll knit up a swatch with a needle that feels right, to see how it drapes and feels and wears. They might wash their swatch to see if it does anything weird, or they might throw it in their purse to see if hard wear will make the fabric pill.
Then there are some who don’t swatch at all. They pick a pattern, a yarn, and a needle and go to town. It is my personal belief that these knitters must have some precious commodity in spades – be it money, patience, time, or oddly shaped friends – to be so reckless. But that’s just me.
I don’t swatch for socks. I just can’t be bothered. Socks are so small that I’m okay with frogging a sock if it’s looking incorrectly sized. Besides – and I don’t know if this is luck or some intuition – only once have a ripped back a sock due to gauge issues, and that’s only because I didn’t like the fabric it was making.
I don’t generally swatch for scarves or shawls, and I can’t imagine that many people do. I did swatch for the Print o’ the Wave stole, but only because I wanted to see how the variegated yarn would work with the lace pattern.
I do, however, swatch for a project if 1) I want it to fit someone in particular and/or 2) it uses a technique I’m not 100% comfortable with (cables, stranded colorwork, a weird stitch pattern, etc.) Since Eris falls into category one…well, see the pile of swatches in the picture.
Taking no chances, I have carefully labeled each swatch with the needle used and the gauge achieved. I learned quite a few things in this process, the most interesting being that I seem to get the exact same gauge on US size 5 and 6 needles. Go figure.
I handed the swatches to Bradon, for him to look at and feel. He looked at the swatches, looked at the attached labels, and announced that I am a dork.
This may be true, but I’ll be a dork with a sweater that fits.
1Sydney
wrote on 13 August 2007 at 19:39
I almost never swatch for socks. Like you, I’m okay with ripping it out if it doesn’t work. I actually do swatch for shawls sometimes, mostly to see which needle size gives the best fabric and drape. I always swatch for sweaters though and then check my gauge a lot while I’m knitting.
2naomi
wrote on 13 August 2007 at 20:10
And that is much, much better than *looking* like a dork while trying to pretend an ill-fitting sweater was exactly what you wanted.
Hats I also don’t swatch for–they’re not enough bigger than the average swatch to be worth it. (Shawls don’t get swatched around here, but I’ll rip out a beginning if I don’t like the fabric.)
3Tonia
wrote on 13 August 2007 at 20:31
What is the old saying – measure twice, cut once.
I like normally swatch, but don’t cut the yarn and rip it back out and use it in the garment. I figure if I want a sample after I am done and have enough left then I can knit another swatch.
4ellie
wrote on 13 August 2007 at 20:36
I fall into the reckless category. I read the gauge on the yarn and do some math if I need to. The one project I swatched liked a good girl, I had a friend help with the math to double check me and wound up with a super comfy baggy sweater – that was supposed to have been hip and fitted. So now I knit first, ask questions later. And yes, sometimes rip back.
5Kathy in San Jose
wrote on 13 August 2007 at 21:38
I usually swatch to find out whether I like the fabric with a given needle size, and to see if it is a close match in gauge or not. If I don’t like the fabric, I’ll switch projects. In fact, I’m swatching right now!
6Debbie
wrote on 14 August 2007 at 0:12
I swatched like crazy for Eris, mainly because Jenna was so adamant about gauge in the directions, and the 40 pages of instructions freaked me out.
Mainly I’ve used a swatch as an opportunity to practice the stitch patterns, but a couple of recent experiences have taught me that it can be worth it to wash the swatch. Amazing how yarn behaves sometimes!
7Chris
wrote on 14 August 2007 at 4:48
Your row gauge didn’t change between the US5 & US6? Stitch gauge isn’t bad for me – but row gauge is my nemesis.
8Miriam
wrote on 14 August 2007 at 8:15
I had a similar moment a week or two ago when I realized that I put a readme.txt file into one of my My Documents folders. *lol* In my defense, I am readying to leave my job, and wanted to make sure everything was clear for the person inheritting it, but it was still pretty funny.
9Kris
wrote on 14 August 2007 at 9:15
I generally swatch a little bit, never the full 4″ though because I’m bored by the time I get half way through. I realize that there are downsides to doing it that way.
For the most part I’ve been pretty happy with how things have worked out, so I won’t complain.
If I am working on something that needs to match gauge exactly, I will do it, otherwise, it can involve a lot of refiguring…
10Lee Ann
wrote on 14 August 2007 at 14:16
No, no, we have a LACK of a precious commodity, which is brain cells.
Actually, I do sort of swatch. It’s called the first few inches of the sweater. And I rip if I don’t like it or it doesn’t do what I think it will do.
It’s stupid. I know. Would be less work to just do a square instead of the whole first few inches of a sweater. But…
“Special Kind of Crazy” is not far off the mark. Let’s just leave it at that.
11Debi
wrote on 15 August 2007 at 22:40
“oddly shaped friends” ~snort~
I swatch and wash the swatches cause being fluffy I do so much “extra” knitting already I want as few surprises as possible!
Just so you know, I’m crazy about Bradon