Knitting Rules! by Stephanie Pearl–McPhee

of it.)
    If you’re up against a deadline and you don’t have much time. Pulling back a hat and trying again because you took a chance is no big deal unless it’s Christmas Eve, the hat is your dad’s present, and he doesn’t have a head the size of an all-you-can-eat salad bowl.
    If you’re the sort of knitter who hates ripping out whole projects and finds it emotionally demoralizing.
    If you’re knitting a yarn like mohair, chenille, or anything else that doesn’t hold up well (or is snatched bald) when it’s ripped out and started over 26 times during the process of trial and error.
    If you didn’t swatch for your last sweater and it worked out really, really well. (The knitting goddess can seldom resist an opportunity to smack you down.)
    If you’re absolutely convinced you don’t need to swatch because you “always get gauge.” (See number 7.)
    If you don’t have many friends or if your friends are all the same size. If you have an assortment of friends and family in various shapes and sizes, you can just give away the wrong-size knitted thing to someone it fits.
    If you made the first mitten of a pair six months ago when you were a new knitter and you’re only now knitting the second one. Things (like your tension, your emotional state, and your relative skill) change and your gauge changes with them.
SWATCHES AND THE GAME YOU PLAY WITH THEM
    There is a certain truth to swatches, and it’s an unfortunate one. It turns out that the bigger the swatch, the greater the chance of accuracy. This means, naturally, that the best gauge swatches are the projects themselves, but we’ve already determined that you’re probably attempting to get out of knitting the project several times.
HOW TO DO IT
    Whatever you decide, don’t skimp on the swatch. As much as I try to get you out of it, you should knit a gauge swatch (or a tension square, depending on your country of origin) that’s big enough that you can measure 4 inches (or 10 centimeters) across to get your stitch gauge and the same amount up and down to get your row gauge. Cast on (using the cast-on that the pattern calls for, if ittells you) at least as many stitches as you think it’ll take to cover 4 inches (or 10 cm), plus at least an inch more for insurance, and then knit along in the stitch your pattern calls for. I can’t stress enough the importance of doing this. If your pattern calls for stockinette, this is what you knit the swatch in. If it’s garter stitch, then do that. If it’s cables and lace (may the knitting goddess bless you), do the lace and cables.
    If you hate to knit swatches, are eager to get going, and just read what I said about the best swatches being the projects themselves, take a good look at your intentions and ask yourself, “Is there any part of this sweater that would make a good swatch?” Could you begin the sleeve? Many sleeves start small enough that you wouldn’t mind ripping back one when if wasn’t right. How about a pocket, a pillow, or the front of a cardigan? If no part of the project leaps out as the perfect guinea pig, then how about knitting a matching accessory? (Obviously, if you’re knitting an accessory, you know I think you should just dive in.)
    Many knitters have different tension on circulars and straights. So, it’s important to work the gauge square with the needle type that you’re going to use later. This is especially important for a mixed-needle project. I was making one where the body was knit on circular needles and the sleeves were knit on straights, and I learned the hard way (don’t I always) that my gauge is different with the two kinds of needle. A smarter knitter than I am would have knit a gauge swatch with the circulars and a swatch with the straights, and tried to match the gauge in both. It would have been nice to discover this quirk of my knitting style sometime before I sewed