Why We Swatch

I used the December downtime to look around our neglected house. We are still reorganizing from Cuddly Hubby moving home January 2022. The 10 long boxes of comic books are in one corner of my studio. The weaving equipment previously in that corner is stored securely in a closet under the basement staircase. Some clutter remains. How could I organize my work space?

Among the clutter was the pile of orange yarn. This was acquired in an Atlanta Knitting Guild auction on 11 July 2019, back in the Before Times. It is 48 skeins of super bulky 50% alpaca 50% wool from Blue Sky Fibers. I bid $40, thinking no one would let me get this for less than $1 a skein, right? Wrong. It is over 10 pounds of yarn — almost 5 kilos. The price was almost criminal.

Orange is not a typical color for me. Of the almost 500 entries in my Ravelry stash, only a dozen are "orange." And at least a few of those are gifts or door prizes or a pale peach color rather than a true orange. I decided it was time to get the pile of orange out of the corner. I started swatching.

I don't remember exactly which day I started swatching. I do remember being comfortably ensconced on the couch on Christmas Eve, watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the classic cartoon featuring Boris Karloff), Ozymandias sleeping on my legs, Cuddly Hubby laughing, and me knitting away. On Ravelry there are only 74 projects made in this yarn. There are a couple hats that look promising. But with 48 skeins, I was looking for a big ol' blanket project. As there didn't seem to be one available, it was time to make one myself.

Swatching is to knitting what drawing is to painting. Before you make a great oil painting, you draw. Drawing is a way to test your idea. This is where science and art overlap. You draw the composition. Should I change the proportion? Does this shape work better if I alter it a bit here or here? Does the figure convey the emotions I want? What if I use this pose instead? You do a small, quick sketch in color. Do the colors work together? Do they convey the emotions I intend? There are other elements, too. For example, if the work is meant to mimic reality, there are questions about perspective, play of light, surface quality, etcetera. The purpose of preliminary drawings and sketches is to test your decisions. Does this work: yes/no? What would make it better? Does that improve it: yes/no? Iterate. By the time a masterwork is painted, the artist has spent hours refining those decisions.

Swatches are the same thing in knitting. What works with this yarn? What needle size? What stitch pattern? What fabric do I get? What type of project would best suit this fabric? The recommended needle size for this yarn is 10mm/US 15. I got out my Denise Interchangeable Needle Set because it is the only set I have whose needles go to that size. I tried both the 12mm/US 17 and the 15mm/US 19. Consistently, I liked the larger needle better. For me — remember, I tend to be a tight knitter — the 12mm needle fabric looked a little squished. This yarn is barely more twisted than roving. If you wanted to, you could easily untwist it and spin it into a smaller yarn. The 15mm needle is a little larger than I would like, as the fabric is a bit more open than I desire. A quick internet search did not reveal a manufacturer of a 13.5mm/US 18 needle. I went with the larger needle.

Then I swatched stitch patterns. According to my Ravelry stash notes, my original thought had been to make a versa lace or ribbles blanket. However, 1×1 ribbing makes a thicker fabric. This yarn is super bulky. I decided a reversible knit-purl pattern would be a more sensible option. I also decided I would like a blanket based on Jay Petersen's reversible entrelac technique using Mondragon loop joins. If you are a long-time reader of this blog, you have seen me play with this technique repeatedly. If you want to learn it, my Sir Thomas scarf pattern will help. I was also thinking about geometry and quilt blocks. With 48 skeins, if I could find a pattern where 1 skein = 1 square block, that easily translates into a 6×8 block blanket.

One of the clever things Jay has done is make entrelac patterns with a block divided diagonally. This disguises the technique. It is similar to quilt blocks, in that your eye follows the stitch pattern across the joins. The final perception is a shape different from the building block. I decided I wanted a block divided diagonally. I wanted strong stripes along one side and either diagonal stripes or a more overall pattern on the other side.

Here's what I got from the swatches. You'll notice none of these are blocked. I plan to rip them out and reuse them. Each swatch is one skein.

The first swatch was just playing around with needle size and stitch patterns. It took me a few rows to get into the rhythm of mistake rib. I liked the diagonal pattern produced by working knit 2, purl 2 and then shifting the pattern one stitch over to create diagonal lines. I used the larger needle at the bottom and the smaller needle at the top.

I tried two swatches of the diagonal pattern to compare needle size. Yup, I much prefer the larger needle. Size 17 needle is the top image, size 19 the bottom image. While it isn't obvious in the photographs, in person the yarn seems a bit squished on the smaller needle, as if it is prevented from blooming.

I played around more with stitch patterns. The bottom pattern was supposed to be mistake rib, but I somehow messed it up. It isn't reversible (top image is obverse, bottom image is reverse). The chevron pattern was nice. I think something like it would be good in an all-over blanket pattern, rather than my smaller 16-stitch-wide entrelac block. Above that is a little bit of seed stitch (knit 1, purl 1, then knitting the purls and purling the knits). Above that is moss stitch (knit 1, purl 1 on right side, match the knits and purls on the wrong side; then purl 1 knit 1 on right side, match the knits and purls on the wrong side).

I also swatched a checkerboard pattern. This is a 2×2 rib out and back, then shifted two stitches on the next out and back rows. I liked the result. Interestingly, the yarn started to pool at the top. I didn't like the pooling.

At this point, I was ready to try making my block. I knew I wanted two stitch patterns, one on each side of a diagonal line dividing the block.

While I liked the diagonal line pattern, I realized for a square-ish block I would probably need a block with twice as many rows as stitches. I decided the diagonal pattern should be knit 2, purl 2 out and matched coming back on the wrong side row, then shifted one stitch. I tried working the wide stripes vertically as 2×2 ribbing. As you can see, this solution had two problems. The diagonal pattern is not as prominent. It looks like a subtle herringbone. Nice, but not the obvious texture I wanted. The ribbing made the block pull in, producing a very much not square block. Okay. This is not the solution.

I tried a block of garter stitch for the lines and seed stitch in place of the diagonal. It wasn't awful. But it also wasn't special. It didn't catch the eye. Seed stitch even on the larger needle seemed a little tight in this yarn. The yarn wasn't blooming. And garter tended to pull up vertically, thus disguising the stripes.

I decided moss stitch would be better than seed stitch. For this swatch I tried garter ridge stitch (two rows stockinette followed by two rows garter) to make the stripes more prominent. They are. But only on one side. Still not the solution. On the other hand. moss stitch suits the yarn well. It is reversible. And it has both a subtle diagonal line and an all-over pattern. Maybe this is half the solution?

My last swatch is moss stitch and welt stitch. Welt stitch is two rows reverse stockinette followed by two rows stockinette. While this is not quite square, in entrelac I am confident it will block and pull enough to behave as if it were square. This gave me my desired block.

Even for a relatively basic pattern using elementary stitches, the design process can take many hours. And even when you think you understand a pattern, yarn and needle combinations may have unanticipated results. It took me nine swatches to find a solution. During the design process I discovered:

• 1×1 and 2×2 patterns are nice in this super bulky yarn.
• Ribbing is not the solution.
• Some patterns that looked good were not the solution. The diagonal pattern looked good, but didn't work for my design. The 2×2 checkerboard also looked good, but also wasn't the solution for my desired block.
  
• Moss stitch worked better than seed stitch.
• Welts worked better than garter.
  

This is why we swatch.