Another Lesson in the Importance of Swatching

Most professional knitters — and many other dedicated stitchers — will tell you how important it is to swatch beofre starting a project if you actually want it to fit the body for which it is intended.

Ball bands offer a suggestion of what needle might get you a reasonable gauge, but we all knit differently with different needles and under different circumstances, so it’s important to swatch so you know how many stitches per inch you are getting and how that compares to what the designer intended.

Berroco recently did a swatch experiment with nearly two dozen knitters using the same yarn and the same sized knitting needles. While six knitters got the same stitch gauge as the ball band suggested, fully 18 of them did not, and no one got the same row gauge as the ball band suggested.

The difference between the tightest and the loosest swatches was more than an inch in all directions, which would make a huge difference over the course of a garment.

We know knitting swatches is not that much fun, but it’s kind of like getting a flu shot. Getting a shot is far better than getting the flu; likewise, knitting a swatch is better than knitting a sweater twice because you didn’t get the right gauge the first time.

Do you have any gauge horror stories or times when knitting a swatch saved your bacon? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo: Berroco.]

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The other day I saw a post from Pinterest about trends for summer and it said one of them was “cultivating whimsy.”

Well, I don’t know where Pinterest has been all this time, but we’ve been cultivating whimsy here at Craft Gossip for a long time. I love sharing projects that are a little different, things that make you smile when you see them, and will make you smile when you knit them and wear them or use them.

Such it is with the Tutti Frutti tee knitting pattern from Bea Creative Knits.

This cute little baby tee is worked top down in the round with contiguous shoulder construction to shape the sleeve caps. There are short rows for the neckline and folded hems with picot edging at the hemline, neckline and edges of the sleeves.

All of this would be great on its own, but then there’s the addition of a super cute fruit icon, which is added with duplicate stitch. There are a lot of options, including strawberry, banana, orange, cherries, watermelon, lemon, blueberries, kiwi, peach, dragon fruit, apple and pear, so it’s likely you can add on your favorite fruit.

It is offered in eight sizes, to fit a bust measurement ranging from 28-30 inches (71-76 cm) to 56-58 inches (142-147 cm). The design is meant to be worn with around 6.3 inches/16 cm of negative ease, but you can choose the fit you prefer. There’s also optional bust and waist shaping included in the pattern if you want to make it even curvier.

This is considered an advanced beginner or intermediate project because of all the skills involved, but it’s sure to be a lot of fun even if some of these techniques are new to you.

Grab a copy of the pattern for yourself form Bea Creative Knits on Etsy.

[Photo: Bea Creative Knits]

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