Hildes corner - What the Swatch?!?

What the Swatch?!?

How many of you think of “swatch” as a four letter word? I know many of us hate to swatch, and often ignore this step. I know I have! Sometimes I don’t even want to hear the word! 

But I have good news!! You don’t have to swatch!! If you love knitting as much as I do, you don’t need to swatch - and bonus!! The knitted object will most likely not be the size you need it to be so you’ll get to knit it again!! Yay!😕 

I recently started a sweater with a hood, and did not make a swatch. I had used this yarn before, and felt I had enough information. The hood turned out too skinny (it barely covered my ears) and way too long (it hung way too far down my back). It took me a month to knit it, but lucky me, I got to knit it again. A second month later, and I finally have the hood I needed it to be. 

However, I think next time I might just knit a swatch. It would save me a lot of time. I think we need to look upon swatches as positive objects. They contain invaluable information. They are a tool of measure, something that is rather important when working on a fitted garment. Can you imagine a woodworker not using a ruler? But our craft is harder because each of us uses a slightly different ruler - our tension. Our tension changes our rulers. We need to find common ground to get similar results to each other. Changing up our needle or hook size is a good way to get a more similar result to each other, and more importantly, similar to what the designer intended. Swatches help us find that all important needle or hook we need. And do not forget to soak and wash your swatch! Take detailed notes of your swatch - what needle size did you use, what needle material was used (sometimes metal versus wood etc can change your tension!), what gauge did you get before soaking and what was it after soaking, how you soaked it etc. etc. I’m seriously considering starting a gauge notebook so when I use the same yarn again, I will have that info right at my fingertips.

So if you’d rather not have to reknit that hat that came out too small, or that sweater you spent 2 years on that turned out big enough for an elephant, try taking an hour to create a helpful swatch instead and get you on the right road to success!