The KW Swatch Experiment, Or, Why, Yes, You Need to Knit a Swatch

Kelbourne Woolens is doing a really interesting series on its website with different knitters working up swatches in their yarns, comparing them and then looking at how those different knitters would fare making a garment with that gauge if they hadn’t knit a swatch before starting.

For instance, knitters working with the company’s Arranmore yarn would have ended up with garments ranging from 8.25 inches too small to 1.5 inches too large, and indeed none of them hit gauge for the pattern in question (one did before blocking the swatch, but it came out bigger after washing, which is why it’s important not to skip that step).

I really liked the general post on gauge they included in the series, which discusses tight knitting and loose knitting, and why you still have to knit a swatch even if you think you “always” knit loose or tight as the case may be. I know that I knit somewhat loose, so if you’re knitting from one of my patterns and you think you need to change needle sizes automatically because of how you knit, you’re likely to end up with a garment that doesn’t fit.

Knitting loosely or tightly doesn’t mean there’s necessarily anything wrong with your technique or that you need to change anything; it’s just something to be aware of as you swatch and something that reinforces the need to swatch.

Do you swatch? I’ll admit I don’t when I’m making a scarf or something, but anything that needs to fit a body I do. It’s so important for the success of your finished items!

[Photo via Kelbourne Woolens.]

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I feel like I haven’t shared many knitting machine patterns lately, probably because I haven’t been using my knitting machines much lately. (I finally made space for them to live on the bookshelf in my office, and now that they have a “place” it’s almost like I forgot they existed for a while.)

But I did recently make a little cat bed, that surely would work for a small dog, too.

This one uses two different sizes of knitting machine: a larger one (it could be any in the 40-48 needle range) and a 22 pin.

The larger machine is used in flat panel mode to make the bottom pillow like part of the bed, while the smaller machine makes a long tube that is used around the edges as the sort of walls of the cat bed.

For stuffing I used a bit of leftover quilt batting for the pillow, and some cut up old T-shirts for the tube.

You can use any worsted weight yarn you like (I used two colors of Big Twist Pound+, which comes in huge skeins that weigh more than a pound). Acrylic or cotton yarn is nice for washablity, but you’ll be cranking for a while so make sure you use a yarn your machine likes so it’s not too much of a struggle.

You can grab the pattern for this cat bed over at Our Daily Craft. I’m sorry to report the pictured is as close as a cat has gotten to it so far, but maybe your cats like to be cozy more than mine do?

If you’re looking for more options for cute handmade places for your cats and little dogs to rest, check out this roundup of knit pet beds. I still want to knit one by hand but the machine version was definitely a faster option (especially good since my cats are ungrateful).

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