How to Gauge and Swatch in Knitting

Before you knit a garment or anything that needs to fit, you should make a gauge swatch. A gauge swatch will help you determine the tightness of your stitches and decide whether your knitting should be adjusted to accurately follow a pattern.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Yarn
• Knitting needles
• Ruler

1. Look at your yarn label to figure out what size needles to start off with. Nex, look at your yarn label to figure out how many stitches you should cast on to make a four inch by four inch swatch. Cast on that number of stitches.

2. Refer to your pattern and knit your gauge swatch in the same stitch pattern that you will use in your pattern. Gauge swatches will look very different, depending on the combination of stitches you use. So make sure you follow the pattern's stitch to knit your gauge swatch.

3. Knit your swatch until it is about five inches long. Then bind off your swatch and wash and dry it the same way you intend to wash your knitted garment.

4. Take your ruler and your dried gauge swatch. Lay the swatch so that the right side, usually the knit side, is facing up.

5. Lay the ruler across the gauge swatch so that it follows one row of stitches. Start one inch from the right edge, and count the number of stitches in the next two inches. Be sure to include fractions of a stitch, such as one-fourth or one-half. The fractions of a stitch are important to calculating your gauge. Divide this number by two to figure out the number of stitches per inch.

6. Place the ruler vertically across your gauge swatch so that it follows on column of your knit stitches. Start one inch from the bottom edge of your swatch. Then count the number of stitches in the next two inches. Include fractions of a stitch in your number. Divide this number by two to determine the number of rows per inch.

7. Compare the numbers you got in Steps 5 and 6 to the gauge recommendations in your pattern. If your swatch matches the pattern, start knitting. If not, change your needle size and repeat these steps until you have an accurate gauge swatch.

Tips & Warnings

• If your gauge swatch is bigger than the patterns recommendations, try a smaller needle. If your knit gauge swatch is smaller, use a larger needle.
• If your gauge swatch does not match the pattern, you can still start your pattern. However, you'll have to take the pattern's gauge information and convert all of the instructions to inches. Then take the numbers you determined from your gauge swatch to figure out the number of stitches and rows you will need as you knit at your gauge.