Why You Should Wet Block Your Swatches

I’m guessing by now you know that you should knit swatches before embarking on large projects, especially garments that need to fit a particular person.

Not only is it important to know if you’re getting the same number of stitches per inch as the designer intended, it also gives you a chance to play with the yarn you’ve chosen, to see if you like it in the stitch pattern called for in the pattern and to get to know how it behaves.

Getting to know how it behaves is also why you should wet block your swatches instead of measuring straight off (or, worse, still on) the needles. YarnSub has a great post all about why you should wet block your swatches, but it basically comes down to the fact that gauge changes when you wash yarn, so if you ever intend to wash your finished garment, you need to know what your gauge will be after that point, not in its unwashed state.

When I’m designing something I always take the time to block my swatches, but I don’t always when I’m working from someone else’s pattern, even though I ought to know better because I have seen the changes that can come over yarns after they are washed. Some bloom and halo, others stretch, and you’ll never know what your finished garment might look like once it’s been washed unless you test it first.

Do you knit swatches? Do you block them? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

[Photo via YarnSub.]

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You probably know by now if you’re a regular reader (and if you’re not, welcome!) that I love a knitting pattern that’s a little silly or a little different from the usual. Classic patterns are great, too, but sometimes you just want to make something with a bit of whimsy. And when it’s super functional, too, that’s even better.

That’s the case with the Bananen-Socken pattern from Susanne Shahin. These banana socks are one of those patterns no one seems to be totally sure where it came from, and this free pattern on Ravelry explains how she makes them based on how she learned it.

It’s a sock that’s curved and when not on a foot it looks rather like a banana. There’s no heel, and you can use whatever number of stitches you need to make it fit your foot. If you’ve knit enough socks to know how many stitches you like you can just use that number, or the pattern notes include sizing charts to help. (It needs to be multiples of 2 for the ribbing.)

After working a traditional cuff, the body is made with ribbing on the back and welts (or what the pattern calls horizontal ribbing) on the front, which is what gives it the curved shape. There’s no heel, but there is toe shaping, but for the leg and the foot you just keep working the same pattern as long as you like.

I’m a little skeptical about how these socks will feel with ribbing on the bottom of the foot, but I’m definitely intrigued and will probably give them a try.

The pattern notes are available on Ravelry in English, German, French, Italian and Spanish. If you head to the pattern page you can see a photo of what it looks like on a foot, and it just looks like a normal sock.

Have you ever knit banana socks or do you want to now? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

[Photo: Susanne Shahin]

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