From long experience, I know that I’m a loose knitter. Uh, let me rephrase that. I know that I knit fairly loosely, because I pull on the yarn with hardly any force at all as I form each stitch. For worsted weight, I typically use a size 4/3.50 mm needle to get the typical 5 spi.

Since CotLin is a DK, there was no point in starting with a needle bigger than a 3.25 mm. So I crochet CO (my default CO) 72 stitches split between two 3.25 mm circs (my default way of working small diameters in the round) with a 3.75 mm hook. I worked about 4.5 inches, then BO the second circ so that I could continue the swatch with stockinette worked in the flat for another 4.5 inches.

My prewashed gauges were

• 3.25 mm ITR: 26.5 sts and 30 rows per 4 inches
• 3.25 mm flat: 25 sts and 29 rows per 4 inches

I made a second stockinette swatch on 36 stitches in the flat, doing a crochet CO with a 2.75 mm hook on a 2.75 mm needle, working about 4.5 inches, then knitting back on the WS to form a purl ridge, and changing to a 3.00 mm needle for another 4.5 inches.

I had only a little rowing out on the flat portions.

Bonus Tip: Because I was using several different needle sizes and would launder the swatches at least twice, I used Maggie’s tip of tying overhand knots in the CO and BO tails to indicate the needle size. Since I was dealing with such small needles, I tied knots in two groups: the group closest to the swatch indicated the number of full millimeters in the needle size, then a second group for the number of quarter-millimeters. So the swatch that started with the 2.75 mm needle had two overhand knots close to the swatch, then a gap, then three more knots. (Note that the gap between the two groups must be larger than the spaces between the knots within the groups.) I tied three knots in the BO tail to indicate the needle size after the purl ridge.

The prewashed gauges on the flat swatch were

• 2.75 mm flat: 26.5 sts and 32 rows per 4 inches
• 3.00 mm flat: 26 sts and 30 rows per 4 inches

Since I liked the feel of the flat swatch worked on the 2.75 mm needles, I needed to work ITR to try to match its gauge. Based on what I had already done, I worked another 72-stitch swatch ITR on two 3.00 mm circs, doing crochet CO with a 3.25 mm hook and working about 5.25 inches before BO.

The prewashed gauges working ITR on 3.00 mm circs were

• 3.00 mm ITR: 26.5 sts and 30.5 rows per 4 inches

After the First Laundering Cycle

I machine washed and dried all three swatches, putting them in a lingerie bag to protect them a bit from the rest of the load. They rolled up in little balls in the wash, which I did not spread back out before putting them in the dryer—a mistake I would avoid on the second trip through the machines.

The gauges of all the swatches did indeed change:

• 2.75 mm flat: 25.5 sts and 33 rows/4 in
• 3.00 mm flat: 23.5 sts/4 in and 31.5 rows/3.75 in
• 3.00 mm ITR: 24.5 sts and 34 rows/4 in
• 3.25 mm flat: 23 sts/4 in and 27 rows/3.25 in
• 3.25 mm ITR: 24 sts/4 in and 28 rows/3.25 in

Since I knew the denim-style yarns often continue to shrink with repeated trips through the machines, I wanted to wash my swatches at least once more, just to see if they changed—and how much. I wanted my sweaters to still fit after umpteen wash cycles, so it was absolutely imperative to know what the ultimate gauges would be, as those would be the numbers I would have to use to figure out my row and stitch counts.

After the Second Laundering Cycle

• 2.75 flat: 24.5 sts/4 in and 32 rows/3.5 in
• 3.00 flat: 23.5 sts/4 in and 30.5-31 rows/3.5 in
• 3.00 ITR: 25 sts and 34.5 rows/4 in
• 3.25 flat: 23 sts/4 in and 25 rows/3 in
• 3.25 ITR: 24 sts/4 in and 26.5 rows/3 in

There was very little change in the swatches’ gauges from the first washing to the second, indicating that the yarn had stabilized (or at least I hope so), so I’ll use the numbers after the second cycle to figure out my stitch and row counts. I still liked the feel of the fabric worked on the 2.75 mm in the flat and the 3.00 mm needle in the round.

Weighting the Swatches

Yes, weighting with a T. Because plant fibers aren’t resilient, they tend to be more affected by gravity. So as we wear such garments, they’re going to lengthen. Because they lengthen, they get narrower. Those changes must be taken into account when determining the number of stitches and rows a fitted garment needs. So I hung the 2.75 mm flat and 3.00 mm ITR swatches up with about an ounce of weight hanging on their bottom edges. I intended to leave them thus for 48 hours, but life intervened, and they actually spent 6 days hanging with their weights (some leftover yarn in plastic sandwich baggies) clipped to their CO edges.

Their gauges didn’t change very much from those after the second wash cycle:

• 2.75 flat: 25 sts/4 in and 31.5 rows/3.5 in (6.25 spi and 9 rpi)
• 3.00 ITR: 25 sts/4 in and 34 rows/4 in (6.25 spi and 8.5 rpi)

(Just for the sake of full science and data recording, the 3.00 mm section worked flat was 24 sts/4 in and 30.5 rows/3.5 in.)

Perhaps because the fabric was fairly firm, the weighted swatches didn’t have significantly different gauges. I’m thrilled that the stitch gauges are the same in both swatches. That of course simplifies determining the stitch counts. To determine the number of rows I need in the different areas of the sweater, I’ll use the flat gauge of 9 rpi, since it’s the tighter of the two gauges. That will automagically give me a tiny bit of ease in the armhole depth, because I’ll have started working in the round before I get close to the underarm.