Special yarn deserves a swatch so you get the best out of it.
Is the yarn really suited to the pattern?
This isn’t quite about tension but it is a good use a tension square. I recently used the most gorgeous twist sock to make a lace capelet for over a dress for a wedding. Of course I didn't swatch so I ran out of wool, it draped incorrectly, weighed about 4 stone (pattern originally for lace weight, used 4ply!) and I had to buy a cardigan for over the dress! The yarn is now waiting to become the socks it should have been, I learnt a gorgeous new lace style but a swatch would have told me no and saved me quite a bit of time! : )
4 Stone capelet!
So I have decided to swatch, what now?
When I was planning this post I was going to cover details of how to swatch, what to expect and some other details. Then I saw that Rachel, from Porpoise Fur, had written a guest blog post over on the A Yarn Story blog that was far superior than anything I could have written so I recommend that you pop over there to get some great how to swatch detail and you could have a browse through the A Yarn Story shop - they have some lovely yarns too : )
I’d love to hear about swatching successes and less successful experiences and do a follow up here so please share below, or contact me on Facebook or via email!
Now, I need to do some WYS Aire Valley DK swatching for those his and hers matching jumpers I threatened promised Simon. with.
Happy knitting,
M.
