The Knitting Fiend

The steps one would perform to design a cape pattern similar to this one are discussed in several articles. This one discusses how to knit "the designer swatch", which you may need to knit if you are designing or redesigning a pattern and substituting a fancy stitch pattern for a plain one.

The cape shown is knit using two stitch patterns; garter stitch for borders and "Four Row Elongated Garter Stitch" for the main portion of the cape. When these two are paired calculating the cape requires the knitter to knit a "designer swatch".

The majority of stitch patterns you only need to knit an ordinary swatch; but some need this fancy swatch. If you can't figure out which you need, describe your stitch pattern and ask in comments.

My method of creating the swatches involves an optional laundering step. This permits me to based the calculations on the gauge after your wash the swatch and ensures that your garment will fit after you launder it. If you are certain the swatch won't change dimensions, and are sure it can be washed the way you intend, you can skip laundering and just pick "doesn't shrink" in the appropriate toggle bar.

Now, here's how to create the swatch!

Knit a swatch

1. Using the recommended stitch gauge on the ball band of your yarn, estimate how many stitches you need to cast on to create a 5" wide swatch assuming you knit the swatch in stockinette. Round up to an even number then add 2. (I cast on 24 stitches.)
2. Using the needles you plan to use for the border of your garment, cast on the number of stitches you calculated. Knit 1" in the stitch you selected as your border stitch, ending with an even row. If this required less than 8 rows, knit until you have completed 8 rows. Write down the number of rows and stitches for this section, which we will call "Section 1". (Note, I selected garter stitch; section 1 is labeled. )
3. Measure the width of the swatch; if it is less than 4" wide, rip back, make a new estimate, and reknit. Your swatch needs to be at least 4" wide to get a good estimate of the stitch gauge. If it is more than 7" and you want to save a bit of time, rip back and re-estimate the number of stitches you need and reknit.
4. On the next row switch to the needles you will use for your garment and begin knitting your main stitch pattern, and work a stitch adjustment row. Before working the adjustment row, examine your the stitch patterns you are knitting. Guess whether the swatch will widen or narrow happen if you don't adjust stitches.
   • If you think the swatch will spread double or more in width, then when knitting the next row, decrease by working "k2tog" across the row. (This is what I did the first time I knit the adjustment row.)
   • If you think the stitch will increase about 50% in width, decrease the number of stitches by 1/3 by working (k1, k2tog) across the row. Record the number of stitches in the garter stitch row and in the stitch pattern. (This is what I did in the end. I ended up with 16 stitches.)
   • If you think the swatch will narrow noticeably, increase the number of stitches by 50% working (k1, knit 2 stitches next stitch) and repeating across the row.
5. Run a thread through this row.
6. Change to the needles you intend to use for your main stitch pattern. Knit an inch. If your guess about spreading was way off, and the width changed by more than an inch and a half, rip back and rework the adjustment row; then reknit the inch. ( I initially guessed wrong and decreased by the number of stitches by 1/2, decreasing from 24 stitches down to 12 stitches. This was too narrow. I then reworked the adjustment row, to result in 16 stitches. If you look carefully, you will see the bottom garter stitch is still a bit wider than the main stitch, but this is ok for the purposes of making a swatch. )
7. Tip: Both sides of elongated garter stitch look very similar, but I needed to knit elongated stitches every 4 rows. I marked the front side with a piece of yarn to make the front side obvious.
8. Now, record the number of stitches in the row and knit until the length of the swatch length is at least 5" measured from the thread above the garter stitch trim. If necessary, continue to knit until you have finished a full row pattern repeat. (For example, if you are knitting 4 row elongated garter stitch, make sure you knit a multiple of four stitches. Color changes don't matter unless the yarn used for the two colors knits up differently from each other.)
9. Work another adjustment row increasing or decreasing stitches at the top of the swatch. Generally, you can simply increase the number of stitches you decreased in the first adjustment row or vice versa. But, now that you have information about how the stitches really spread, you can refine things and try to decrease or increase to make the widths match perfectly. I had decreased from 24 stitches to 16 stitches when I switched from section 1 to 2; that's 8 stitches. I decided to increase only 5 by repeating (k3, make 1) across the row and ending with a k1.) This resulted in 21 stitches. (Note, refining is optional. However, minimal width changes result in slightly more accurate determinations of the real stitch gauge. )
10. Run a thread through the adjustment row. The section between threads is section 2.
11. Knit 1" of garter stitch; if necessary knit an extra row to make this an even number. Bind off. This is section 3.
12. If you haven't yet, record the number or rows and stitches knit in each section.
13. Place a pin 1 stitch in from the edge of the swatch, count the number of stitches between pins and measure the width between pins. Record these as "before laundering" measurements. Record the number of stitches between pins and the "pre-laundering width. (The number of stitches is two less than the number you knit in that section.)
14. Count the number of rows in each section; measure the length of each section. Record these as the "pre-laundering" lengths.
15. Launder your swatch as you plan to launder the garment. Do whatever blocking you like to make the stitch look the way you like, but don't block to achieve some target dimension. My "blocking" generally consists of gently patting the swatch to lay flat, and sometimes steaming lightly.
16. Measure the length and width again and record as "post laundering" Compare these to the previous measurements. If they changed, you will need to account for that when charting you pattern. To determine your stitch and row gauge, enter data in the calculator below.