When I volunteered to do a diary on this particular day I grossly underestimated how busy I would be after returning from three weeks away from home. Therefore this is going to be a short diary.
So, what am I working on? Well I'm glad you asked, I continue to work on the Lacey tank top that was my vacation knit. As usual I grossly overestimated how much time I would spend knitting and took two balls of yarn with me and even though I have been home for over a week and knitting steadily I haven't touched the second ball yet. I don't know why, but for some reason I like to read in the evening after a day spent bike touring. I did however, get a lot of knitting done while on planes and trains.
Since I'm working on an article of clothing I thought I would give a little talk on gauge.
I really don't like doing gauge swatches; I'm not to the point of hating them, I just don't enjoy it, I'd rather jump into my project, but after a sweater that was too big and a lace shawl that was not open enough I learned my lesson and I now do some vague sort of gauge swatch. Part of my issue with gauge swatches is not just the time, but I think they are a waste of yarn so I tend to unravel mine and re-use the yarn.
I do two types of gauge swatches, the first is a basic stockinette to determine how many stitches per inch and the second type is a pattern swatch to determine how big a pattern repeat will be and to see the openness of a lace pattern. The first of swatch is used for clothing because for some odd reason pattern designers usually give gauge for clothing in stockinette stitch no matter what the pattern might be. My second type of swatch is used for shawls and I will usually soak and block these so I can see how the yarn will work with the lace pattern and also get an idea of what the final size will be.
I am not a gauge purist, I'm not going to knit multiple swatches to get the gauge perfect. I tried that once and after the third swatch just recalculated the pattern to my gauge (it was a skirt and an easy calculation). My approach is to knit the swatch on needles one size smaller than recommended (I knit loosely) and then calculate my gauge and then choose the size most likely to fit me. For example my current project is knit in the round, but I did a flat swatch. My gauge when knitting in the round is a little tighter than flat knitting because I purl looser than I knit. I knit a 5" x 5" swatch, which I don't bind off, I simply pull off the needles and measure. My gauge was 1/2 stitch tighter than recommended so it was close. Now I am a large busted woman (good hearty Eastern European peasant stock), and have found that my knits tend to be tight across the bust so that's the measurement I focus on. The pattern listed a medium as a 34" bust and a large as a 38" bust. I'm a 36 - 37" bust and the pattern has 3" of negative ease so I'm knitting a size large. If my gauge would have been a 1/2 stitcher looser than the pattern required I might have knit the medium, although with 3" of negative ease I might still have knit the large.
The only time I don't worry about gauge is when knitting for charity, unless the object is very big, or very small or out of proportion someone will be able to wear it.
I would love to hear other opinions and recommendations for gauge swatching, but I will be out this afternoon and might not be able to check comments until later, and I'm getting a new foster dog this evening so I might have my hands full with her.