Tuesday Tip – Gauge Swatch Cast On
If you’ve watched my DVD Patty’s Knitting Bag of Tricks, you know all about the sad frown cast on and how we can avoid it.
A too tight cast on can really create a gauge swatch that can lie to you. In this Tuesday Tip I wanted to share one of my favorite gauge tricks –
Gauge Swatch Cast On!
When we do a gauge swatch we want the fabric of our swatch to behave like the fabric of our project. That means not having it constrained by a cast on or bind off edge.
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To REALLY explore gauge, enjoy my video class MAKE YOUR GAUGE WORK. Click on the picture below
To read past Tuesday tips, just click on the Tutorial category of the blog (or here I did it for you!).
If you have a “is there a better way to do that”, or “how do you do that” question, leave me a comment, and I’ll add it to the Tuesday Tip list!
Mega-awesome! I commented on YouTube itself but will also ask here if there is any particular way you like to fasten off the “bind off” of running the working yarn through the top live loops. I can see some significant handling of a gauge swatch when washing and blocking and even if the tail were long (like 3 or so times the width of the swatch), with some of the swatches that grow, I wonder if it would be safer to fasten off the “bind off” rather than leaving a lengthy loose tail.
I don’t do anything with the yarn, but if it makes you nervous, you can tie a few knots in it so it can’t pull through (you can even tie on a stitch marker that could act as a stopper)
This looks a lot like the (what I call, because I am not sure of the right name) “invisible tubular cast on for ribbing.” Is it similar?
It’s closely related, but quite different. You are thinking of the Italian Cast on that creates knits and purls for a tubular cast on. As I said in the video, this is NOT a cast that can be used for anything but a gauge swatch.
thanks for the clarification!
I have a very hard time with gauge. I get very up set , because I work at it, and still can’t it. I wish they had a class that helps you with gauge. It is very hard to work with.
“They” do 🙂 (me) have a class on gauge. A link to it is right in the post you’re commenting on.
Make Your Gauge Work – https://pattylyons.com/product/make-your-gauge-work-education-platform-separate-website/
I’m late to the party and just discovered this. What a game changer! Thank you for the clear directions and the logic behind this method.