Friday, October 07, 2005

The Perfect Tension Swatch

Recipe for the Perfect Tension Swatch


Look at the tension stated in the pattern:

____ stitches x _____ rows using ________ size needles.

Using the correct needles, cast on twice that many stitches.

Bottom border:
Work 6 rows in garter stitch – that is, knitting every row.

Main body:
Right side: knit entire row.
Wrong side: k3, purl to last 3 stitches, k3.
Repeat these two rows until the main body portion measures 15 cm/6 inches.

Top border:
Work 6 rows garter stitch – knitting every row.
Cast off.

Steam or launder the swatch according to the instructions on the yarn ball band.

And then measure it. This provides a swatch large enough to get a good, flat 10 cm/4 inches to measure in both length and width.

2 comments:

Sylvie Gagne said...

Hi, Kate! I just used the swatch recipe again. Thanks for putting it on the blog so that I could have ready access to it!!

V said...

This is the perfect gauge swatch. Now, if only my gauge were perfect. ;)