Why Knit Swatches?

Do what I say, not what I did.

Over the past 40+ years, I evolved from following patterns to designing my own, thanks to the encouragement I found in Elizabeth Zimmermann's books. I have been unsuccessful as often as I was successful. Why? Because it took me years to learn that I needed to knit swatches. A swatch is a sample square, usually around 4"x4". It combines yarn weight, needle size, stitch pattern, and your unique knitting style to create a formula for knitting any project.

My advice to beginning knitters is to invest in a complete selection of knitting needles of different sizes, and a bag of second hand yarn - yard sales, flea markets and so forth. I use only natural fibers - wool, cotton, silk, mohair, etc. - but choose your own preference. What you are looking for is a selection of many different skeins, not large amounts of one kind.

Now start knitting swatches - with one yarn type knit swatches on different sized needles. Try different stitches - stockinette, garter, seed, cables, lace, whatever suits your fancy and your abilities. One of Barbara G. Walker's treasuries is a good first knitting book investment; each one holds hundreds of stitches and designs from the most basic to the most complex.

When your swatch is done, cast off. Spray the swatch lightly with room temperature water, just enough to slightly dampen it. Then place a tea towel over it and iron with a warm iron. This relaxes the fibers to even out the tension of all your stitches.

Once you have knit your swatch, you can measure it to find out how many stitches per inch and rows per inch you have knit. If I were to duplicate your swatch, my measurements might differ from yours because of how tightly or loosely we each knit. This is why so many people have problems with following a pattern. No pattern can give you AND me correct instructions for knitting the same garment unless our guage matches the one in the pattern.

I learned this the hard way. If the guage is 4 stitches per inch but you knit 3.25 stitches per inch, decrease your needle size by at least two sizes and try again. Keep trying until you get the right guage. Or you may want to try a thinner yarn.

By knitting numerous swatches, you will get a feel for how yarn weight and fiber, needle size and stitch work together to create a fabric. Thicker yarn, smaller needles, and a compact stitch will create a fabric impervious to wind and weather, perfect for children's mittens or an adult's vest but all wrong for a newborn's bonnet. What creates a feathery shawl will not create a durable sock, and so on.

Save your swatches; they are your resource library for future reference, and can eventually become a project of their own, such as a patchwork blanket, wall hanging, pillow cover or shawl. For now, pin a label on each one with the name of the yarn and needle size. Over time you will remember what each yarn "does"; it's when your fingers start remembering that you realize you have come home. Born to knit? Perhaps.

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