Tuesday’s Knitting Tip – Swatching in the Round by Knitting Flat
Thanks to Sara Delaney for this week’s knitting tip on Swatching in the Round by Knitting Flat. This is a particularly good tip if you know your gauge knitting in the round is different than when you knit flat.
My friend, and one of our WEBS instructors, Annie Foley taught me this great trick.
When making a gauge swatch you want to work the swatch in the same manner and on the same needles as the peice you are swatching for. If you are planning to work in the round the best way to swatch is, of course, in the round but casting on 80 stitches to swatch on a 16″ needle or working your whole sweater on double points is kind of ridiculous. Why not just cast on 4″ worth of stiches on the 24″ circular needle you’ll be using for the sweater!
The trick is to work the whole swatch like a big i-cord. Knit across your stitches then DO NOT turn your work over, instead simply slide the stitches all the way back to the right-hand end of the needle and begin working them from right to left again. Just be sure to pull your working yarn across the back of the work nice and loose, leaving lots of slack.
This will leave the stitches along either edge looking all loosy-goosy but the center stitches will truly represent your gauge as worked in the round.
Dena
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Tags: circular knitting, gauge swatch, how to, knitting tips, Tuesday's Tip
June 12th, 2012 at 12:17 pm
Sweet. Thank you.
June 12th, 2012 at 6:24 pm
Very cool! Great idea!
June 13th, 2012 at 3:30 pm
how do you then wash and dry your swatch? Say it’s a superwash, would you throw it into the washer and dryer like that, maybe in a sweater bag or inside a bra bag or something? Just wondering….
June 14th, 2012 at 8:32 pm
Love it. Thank you. Have always wondered how to swatch when knitting in the round.
June 14th, 2012 at 8:33 pm
Instead of having that long float across the back, use the yarn for knitting. It usually takes a couple of trys to figure out how much yarn you need to knit back.
June 26th, 2012 at 7:41 pm
I usually handwash my swatches. But if you’re machine washing it, putting it in a mesh bag or even a zippered pillow case may be a good idea with this kind of swatch.