Swatchety Swatch

Wednesday 21^st September 2016

I recently read this.  It is about swatching. I know many knitters really hate swatching.  What I don’t really know is why.   It’s true that taking a bit of time to make a little sample is time you could have spent making The Real Thing.  But if The Real Thing will be too big or too small, or too complex, or too simple – what is the point of swatch-dodging? So in that blog post, with which I heartily agree, you will learn about why swatching for tension is a good idea – and how it can vary.  In my world, where I design a lot of things, the swatching is all that and also a crucial part of the design process.  It not only gives me data that I will need for The Real Thing, it also tells me how much I am going to like knitting it. And/or how much I think you may like knitting it. Many many of my swatches never get made into grown-up knits.  This may be because of several things, such as:  I can’t really do it/make it work; I can do it/make it work, but it is ugly; I thought I’d like it when I designed it in my head and then wrote it down or drew it – but it turns out I really do not like it; my calculations reveal The Real Thing will consume eleventy nine skeins of yarn and about a year of my/your life and you will hate me. That kind of thing.  These hapless swatches get filed in the ‘hopeless’ file. I was once called, to my face, a ‘weirdo’ for not only swatching but saying (truthfully) that I like swatching.  To be fair, I am a weirdo, but not because of the swatching.  You know me, kind of, and the weirdness is fine and mainly not the dangerous sort.  But I really did get all huffy about that. Because swatching, whilst it may not be for everyone, is essential.  Someone has to do it. And sometimes, that someone is you.  Why?  Because swatching is also an invaluable teaching aid.  I may design an item, let’s go with a Fairisle cowl, knitted in the round, and this item may form the basis of a workshop.  To make the design really work, I had to begin that cowl with a fairly long and dull stretch of rib.  One-by-one twisted rib which no-one needs a workshop for.  So I thought:  if I just rock up with a pattern and they all go right ahead and make the item with no practice, no-one will be further than line 2 of the chart by tea-time – the entire day will be spent knitting rib.  So I did two things:  1)  I designed a small swatch so that the pattern which was beaded Fairisle, could be knitted as a little practice; and 2) because I knew that almost no-one would be keen on that, I sent out the pattern up to the point where the rib ended so that anyone who was a swatch-dodger could prit* that part and then dive right into the main charted bits. *prit: to pre-knit something before a workshop for the sole purpose of avoiding swatching.  I have that term copyrighted, OK? I don’t mind doing that.  If it makes you happy.  In fact for my Smoke and Mirrors Felted Bag, I designed the inner pockets as swatches – stealth swatching.  Totes worked. But given that hand knitting, which we all love, is by its very nature a steady, rhythmic and repetitive process that takes time, I really do not understand the reckless – yes, indeed, sir, I go so far as reckless – avoidance of a little practice for the purpose of mastering the stitches and gaining the assurance that The Real Thing will be good.  I am also, as you know very well, a big fan of instant or fairly rapid knitting gratification so I do get the urge to rush ahead and get started – because then you will be finished sooner, right?  But take a little time to swatch, especially if the item is a size critical thing, or the stitch(es)/techniques are unusual or new to you.  In my patterns, I usually mention the stitch/row repeat in the notes and add a note about what to cast on if you want to swatch.  This is because I don’t design a lot of stocking stitch things.  I’m not stitch-ist by the way, I love a bit of stocking stitch soothing as much as the next weirdo, but I also like a bit of adventure! Embrace the swatch.  Be a swatch-ninja.  Like me.  (I can just hear Lily’s eyeballs rolling about if she read or heard me say that.  I think I will say it to her as soon as she gets in.  I’ll let you know how that goes).