How to determine Gauge with a Knitted Swatch

How To Make a Swatch in Knitting

My mom, Joanne and I (Ana) have been working on this adventure for a long time now.

She takes care of most of YouTube questions and some of the Facebook ones as well.

Some of the most popular questions are:

‘How many stitches do I need to make a (blanket, shawl, gloves)?’

Or, ‘how can I make a blanket with this stitch pattern?’

And we always suggest figuring out the knitting gauge, which means:

You gotta make a Swatch, baby!

And I know, believe me, who wants to take the time to make a little knitted square that you won’t even be able to wear/use?

But this is simply the best way to determine the number of stitches, gauge, and yarn it will take for your project.

This is how I approach it:

I make a swatch for every part of the project.

For example, I’ve been designing fingerless gloves with many of our knitting stitch patterns and I often make a swatch for the ribbing and for the stitch itself.

I’ve noticed, for example, the for regular worsted yarn, like Red Heart’s Soft I often need 38-40 stitches on my needle for the width of my own hands which is slightly larger than a normal hand but not large.

And for more stretchy yarn like Red Heart’s Chic Sheep, I only need 33-37 stitches, otherwise, it’ll be quite loose on me (but perhaps good for a man’s hand).

So see? This is the solution for all of your Knitting Gauge questions.