I’m slowly adding helpful pages of helpful superhero knitting tips. The first one is on making a gauge swatch, which is the question I’m probably asked most often at the yarn store.
I know that gauge swatching isn’t as fun as just diving in and making something, but you know what’s even less fun? Making a whole sweater and finding out that it is big enough to use as a circus tent – or small enough for a chihuahua. Don’t let that happen to you!
Instead, make swatching fun! Get a nice beverage and call it a “getting to know your yarn” session. A first date, so to speak! Get cozy with your yarn and start asking it what needles it prefers, or if it has ideas on the pattern you’re planning to knit. Find out if your yarn and your hands get along. THEN and ONLY THEN are you ready for the long-term commitment of a garment.
ps. Please Please PLEASE wash your swatch! They can lie to you if they’re not washed. They’ll sweet talk ya and whisper sweet nothings in your ear and promise that they have the right gauge, but a good swish in warm water is like truth serum for a gauge swatch, so always SWATCH & SWISH!
ZaftigKnitting 
Comments on: "Get Gauge!" (2)
I wish I’d known about washing guage swatched prior to making my first sweater! I’d known to swatch & bothered to do so, thinking I was doing good. Oh how that swatch lied. Sweet talk indeed!!
You have to wash the lies out of ’em!