Why Swatch?……Nov. 4, 2005

Now, I ask myself……."Why do you bother swatching, if you are going to ignore what it tells you?

The little Bolero pattern calls for aran weight yarn, knit on size 8 needles. 18 sts and 24 rows giving a 4inch square.  So, I started off with size 8 needles….and as you can see the swatch to the left looks a little loose and big. It measured out the 4 inches in length, but it was a bit bigger in width.  Did I pay attention to that swatch…….NOOOOOOO………….

As you can see, the knitting to the left was working up quite loose and floppy, so what did I do, I knit another swatch going down a needle size.  I didn’t rip out the first attempt at the sweater, just in case I was right the first time, but I don’t have to tell you that I was wrong, wrong, wrong.  When will I ever learn??

This little sweater is knit all in one piece. Each 40 stitch sleeve is cast on in increments of 10 stitches.  Easy, peasy, right?  Merrily I am knitting along and as I am knitting, I am thinking to myself, Hmmm……..this sleeve is looking short.  How can this be?  So I go back and look at the gauge swatches, even the smaller needled swatch is a hair bigger than it should be, so why oh why are my sleeves looking so short?? 

Duh……….instead of doing 40 stitches on each side, I did 40 stitches combined (20 and 20).  How could I have made such a silly error?  This week has been the week of knitting errors for sure.  No good knitting Karma here……why?  As I was reading Cassie’s post this morning, the light bulb went off.  Daylight savings is playing Tom Foolery with my mind.  Too many cobwebs, I guess.
Finally, I think I may be on the right track this time.

Lesson learned……if you are going to swatch, listen to what they tell you.

Something to smile about this week…….