Fun
Look at Me, Swatching!
Although I’m a fairly dedicated non-swatcher who occasionally slips down the slope to anti-swatcher, I recently have found it necessary to swatch.
Not for gauge. What’s the big deal about knowing whether or not you’re getting gauge? Where’s the suspense and excitement in that? How far from getting gauge could I be—not that far, right?
And since I’ve already made my first Waffle Pullover, I know my gauge is JUST FINE. The sweater fits JUST GREAT. The best way to check your gauge is to knit the whole sweater blind and then put it on and wear it incessantly. [Shout out to all the righteous gauge swatchers who are screaming at their screen right now—I jest! I mostly, almost entirely jest!]
For my second Waffle, which I’m going to bang out in February, I wanted to use two of the new colors in the Jane palette, Citronelle and Earth, but I couldn’t for the life of me decide which one I wanted to be color A and which one color B.
As the swatches in Ann’s recent post demonstrate, it really makes a difference which color is A and which color is B.
So I swatched. It’s not like swatching is hard! I quite enjoyed myself.
My swatches are flat, like the ones the divine Francie Owens knitted up to show Jane color combinations. I made mine the same generous size as those swatches, so I can donate them to the Waffle Swatch collection at the MDK Shop at Atlas, in case they help other knitters who are undecided about Citronelle and Earth and A and B.
Left: Earth is color A, Citronelle is color B. Right: Citronelle is color A, Earth is color B.
Honestly, I’m still not sure. I have the rest of January to think about it, because I’m not casting on until January 30 at the first session of our Bang Out a Sweater Workshop with Lorilee Beltman. Rules are rules—no early cast ons! I generally gravitate to dark colors, especially in winter, but the Citronelle-forward swatch has fantastic texture—maybe I should just flip a stitch marker and let chance decide.
Would you like to make a flat swatch of your colors A and B?
Since the sweater is worked in the round, a slight adjustment is needed to work the waffle pattern flat. Here’s the recipe for my flat swatches.
Flat Waffle Swatch
Cast on 49 stitches in color A using the long-tail cast-on.
Now start the 4-row pattern:
Rows 1 and 2 (color A): Knit
Row 3 (color B) (RS): *Slip 1 wyib (with yarn in back), k1, repeat from * to last stitch, slip 1 wyib.
Row 4 (color B) (WS): *Slip 1 wyif (with yarn in front), k1, repeat from * to last stitch, slip 1 wyif.
Repeat rows 1-4 20 times.
Knit 3 rows in color A and bind off on the next row (WS).
Mini Waffle Anyone?
The recipe yields a roughly 8 x 8 inch swatch, which is luxurious and photogenic but frankly more swatch than you need to audition colors A and B. To test a couple of other combos, I went smaller.
To make a quarter-size mini swatch of approximately 4 x 4 inches, follow the recipe above, but cast on 25 and work the 4-row repeat only 10 times. These are quick!
Left: Earth is color A, Yorkshire is color B. Right: Yorkshire is color A, Earth is color B.
Left: Citronelle is color A, Yorkshire is color B. Right: Yorkshire is color A, Citronelle is color B.
Be right back, I’m knitting mini swatches until I run out of Jane shades in my stash.
Join the Fun, Get a Sweater
Our Bang Out a Sweater knitalong starts on January 30. That day, we’ll all cast on and start sharing our progress pictures far and wide. On Instagram, Threads, and wherever else you post, use the hashtag #BangOutaWaffle so that we can all ooh and aah and cheer each other on.
As always with an MDK knitalong, all yarns are welcome, so get thee to your stash. The Waffle Pullover is knit in a DK weight yarn, so there are lots of beautiful choices.
Also: We’ve got an optional, totally awesome 3-session virtual workshop with legendary teacher Lorilee Beltman. Read all about it here.
MDK Society members: use your membership coupon code to save 10 percent on the workshop and your yarn. And be sure to come hang out in the MDK Society Lounge, where the Bang Out conversation is on!
Inspiring post! Cecilia Campochiaro’s teeny marling swatches are great too, but proved too small for such big decisons. Fascinating difference between A&B as main color! Thanks from Norway.
Susan – way off the subject of knitting, I have a question for you. Do you know the name Marit Bjornson Barkbu? She is the granddaughter of Bjornstjerne Bjornson. I am also related to both of them. Is she still alive? I have tried to contact her with no success.
You’re article is delightful!
Does the back of each swatch look like its opposite? If so, you could make the seams very neat and have a reversible sweater and no decision to make. (You can probably tell that I have never done mosaic knitting. If this were possible, someone would have already thought of it, written patterns, etc.—but it just seems logical that the colors would be reversed.)
I wondered how that would work. The raglan is the key. I will double check mine.
Pam, the WS will look different. Different texture for sure.
Yes, it’s a different texture on the back side. It looks vaguely woven, and the distribution of the 2 colors is much more equal. Guess I just have to keep swatching both options for A & B!
I am cheering you on for not swatching! A chore I dislike very much, but understand how necessary! With that said, I swatch just for sweaters!
Love the flat waffle swatches! These would be great for wash clothes if it was cotton, and for whip stitching them around a bar of soap and letting them felt!
Enjoy the humor! Thank you!
I’m team Yorkshire A and Earth B. Earth looks like a void!
Yes! It looks almost lacy!
You neglected to point out that SWATCHES LIE. I recently started 2 pullovers within a few days of each other. (Never mind why. Boring story ) swatched both. Got gauge in both.
At about 4″ up each back, I did a sanity check. Green sweater in stockinette was 2″ too narrow. Brown cabled sweater was 6″ too wide.
HUH???
So, yeah. There’s lots of reasons to swatch, but I’m not convinced gauge is the primary one.
This is my problem with swatching for gauge as well. Even when I make the swatch 8″ or so. Sometimes swatching in the round on dpns helps but not always.
Swatches: I now think pinning them flat (gently smoothed out) gives more accurate msrmnts than not pinning. If you have cables pin it out so the cables look like you want them to & probably wet that swatch first. Starting w/suggested label needle size I cast on sts for approx 8”, do whatever pattern & enough rows to get a somewhat square swatch (sometimes the swatch gets taller if I’m trying different needle sizes). I can see the benefit of washing if it’s a complicated pattern, cable or lace otherwise I don’t wash. Once pinned, measure across the whole swatch in several places, take #of cast on sts divided by actual inches wide = sts/in, don’t round up or down. That # is gauge. If you want 20” across the back, 20”x Gauge = #sts across back. Knit at least 8” up the back, put sts on waste yarn, lay it flat, gently smooth it out & pin it to see if on track & keep checking to make sure the back is spot on before moving on. This has been VERY accurate for me. Takes more time but saves my sanity in the long run.
If anyone needs to swatch it is I – Mrs. Loose Knitter who never learns her lesson about dropping down needle sizes far enough. Maybe I should start here. I have some Yorkshire and Peony on hand to practice with. And if you are taking votes, Kay, the Citronelle as A is my favorite. I’ve been in love with this color for ages but look awful in it. If you look good in it, flaunt it! But that’s me. More importantly, I think you’ve actually motivated me to swatch!
Keep Going. Then I won’t have to! All combos covered. Lol
At first I was all about your dark swatch-so striking! but you have a good point about the delicious texture of the other one-and all that citronella is delightful.
I agree!! The sweater looks entirely different when the lighter color is A — which means two sweaters should be made!!!
I second this opinion!
Take back my “favorite” recommendation. When you are intertwining colors, all bets are off since the overall effect can be very different. You just gotta look at it against your skin.
Those mini swatches could be combined into a gorgeous squishy blanket, I am thinking. The combos are lovely. Thanks for the inspiration !
Look!! You’ve made coasters! ❤️
Hi, Kay—I urge you to go for Citronelle for A. Winter is exactly the time we need to wear bright colors to cheer us on. The citronelle will be fabulous against a grey sky or fluffy white snow!
So true!
Mix it up … perhaps make the sleeves the alternate?
That is exactly what I was thinking!! Cool idea right?!
Genius!
I’m going with color: Bluebell and Peony! (Would have gone more subtle, but Yorkshire was out of stock.) So excited to swatch and try this out. Love your BOAS projects and really advancing my skills.
This isn’t swatching, this is playing! Such fun color combos.
There is definitely a waffle in my future (two sweaters OTN right now, not adding a third!), and I heart Yorkshire, but I sure wish there were mini-skeins available for auditioning contrasting colors. Hint, hint?
I’d go for a mini-skein collection of the full Jane palette. Is this a viable idea for you at MDK and your supplier?
Oooh. I *love* the “Citronelle A, Earth B” combo. *And* the “Yorkshire A, Earth B” combo . . . so tempting . . . which one . . .
I must be missing something because I enjoy making a swatch of the same yarn on different sized needles to see what feels good for the project. Then I can change the pattern to what I like. It only takes a little math. I won’t do that with my waffle pullover because of the fit and the colors are so much fun to knit
Hmmm. In cotton those 8″ swatches would be great dish cloths.
Having seen Ann’s post with her swatches and now yours, Kay—with all these combos, I really prefer a dark background with little dots of bright. And that’s reflective of my love of anything with dots or stripes or ideally both! Someone suggested that you make the sleeves in the reverse colors and that could be cool, but I was thinking just make the neckline and cuffs and hem in the reverse colors, just to give a pop of the possibility of a different background and foreground combo. Either way I know you’ll have a ton of fun cause you already are!
no need for a mosaic DK weight sweater here in florida. can you imagine! but I’m loving the Citronelle/earth combination!
My favorite swatches have been where color b really pops. For your swatches, my favorite is earth as color a and citronelle ( I hope I have those right) as color b. Your swatches are gorgeous!
This one just caught my eye!
Citronelle is color A, Yorkshire is color B.
You read my mind!
I was struggling with this pattern today and was thinking “I wish someone would lay out how to swatch this for me.”
But I think a correction is needed- the mini-swatch needs an odd number of stitches, just like the large swatch instructions have, or else the mosaic doesn’t work.
I need to put down my needles and get some sleep… it clearly says to use 25 stitches for the mini-swatch but I read 24 (oops!)
Love seeing these! Thanks for this info.
Need to get swatching. I picked Cameo and Shadow for my BOAS