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.]

Over the years I have shared a lot of pumpkin knitting patterns, and I’ve knit and crocheted a lot of pumpkins myself. But it feels like there are always more fun things to try with knit pumpkins, so this year I wanted to look a little more beyond basic stockinette or ribbed pumpkins and share some pumpkin patterns with cables, bobbles and colorwork.

In the cable collection we’ve got these cute little basic cable and ribbed pumpkins from Elly Bear Knits. There are two sizes that make a wide, flat pumpkin and a taller round pumpkin. Both are worked in the round as a tube that’s cinched top and bottom when you’re done, and they use bulky weight yarn.

Another cute cable pumpkin knitting pattern comes from Gray Bear Akswokrat. This one is knit flat and it looks like a chunky yarn but you could use other weights to make pumpkins of different sizes. This one also has an I-cord stem and uses yarn to cinch up the sections of the pumpkin, giving it a more natural look.

Add some bobbles to your pumpkins with this design from Autumn Shelter Makes. Also worked in the round in a tube, it features a repeating pattern of bobbles and uses yarn wrapped around the outside to make segments. This one looks like worsted weight yarn to me.

Of course there’s nothing that says your pumpkin has to be a single color, so let’s throw in some colorwork. I love the look of the Cozy Fall Pumpkin knitting pattern from South Stitch Girls. The little leather loop adds a rustic touch but you could also just add a stick. These pumpkins have five colorwork options and are worked in worsted weight yarn in the round.

There’s also the Autumn Fair Isle Trio pumpkins pattern from Equestriann Style, which has three different sizes of pumpkins with four colorwork designs. They are worked in super bulky yarn in the round and look good with high contrast or more muted color combinations.

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