Swatching in pattern

ysolda.com/blogs/journal/swatching-in-pattern

by ysoldateague April 17, 2014

swatching tutorial

“The pattern will tell you the stitch pattern to use for your swatch (and if it doesn’t specify work
your swatch in stockinette stitch). Even if you don’t need to work a stitch pattern to test for
gauge it can be a good idea to knit a swatch in an unfamiliar stitch pattern to get used to it before
working it over many repeats in a garment”

— Little Red in the City

After swatching in pattern you may discover that your chosen yarn/ pattern pairing do
not go together at all; the stitch definition may get lost; the colours may over power the
lace; or the pattern that looked delightful as a chart might be a mess when knit up. On
the other hand it may get you even more excited to cast on and start your project.

How many stitches to cast on

Stitch dictionaries tend to include helpful information like ‘cast on a multiple of 5 + 2.’
This means that in order to follow the directions as given you should cast on any multiple
of 5 stitches, plus 2 (7, 12, 17, 22…).

The additional stitches are used to create a balanced pattern. This number does not
include any edge stitches and you will probably want to add 2 or 3 stitches of garter
stitch at each side. So for a pattern with a multiple of 5 + 2 I might cast on 38 sts for my
swatch and work 3 stitches in garter at each end.

Extracting a stitch pattern from a project pattern

Patterns for shawls or sweaters often incorporate the instructions for a stitch pattern
into the general directions. Look for the directions for a full repeat and carefully count
the number of stitches in the repeat. If the pattern is worked flat or in a panel it may be
obvious how many additional stitches are needed to work a balanced pattern, but it
really doesn’t matter if your swatch is symmetrical, so don’t worry too much about this!
For an example check out this post on extracting a swatching pattern from the Sherilyn
shawl pattern.

Swatching in the round

Often stitch patterns will have different directions for working flat vs in the round.
Whether you’re knitting flat or in the round can also affect gauge so it’s important to
work the swatch the way the majority of the project will be worked. The fact that you
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won’t need to convert the stitch pattern directions is just a bonus!

Measure using pattern repeats

Once you’ve finished and blocked your swatches you’ll need to measure them to ensure
you’ve got the correct gauge. You may find that counting individual stitches or rows in
stitch patterns more difficult to count, but since you can figure out how many
stitches/rows are in a pattern repeat it can be faster to count pattern repeats. In the
example below there are 4 rows per pattern repeat so 10 repeats x 4 row = 40 rows for 4
inches.

Measuring motif or cable width

Sometimes it’s even easier than that and the motif or cable width is given, add some
stitches to either side of the motif so your swatch is big enough to spread out and then
measure the motif.

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You can find even more information on swatching on pages 18–29 of Little Red in the
City.

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