Have you ever swatched with a yarn and didn’t get the right stitch gauge so you made another swatch, only to measure it and have it be almost the same stitch gauge as the first swatch (or perhaps just a tiny fraction different)? It doesn’t seem logical since how could a different size needle give you practically the same result? If this has happened to you, don’t worry – you’re not alone! Here are some factors that may be causing this…
Are your different needles made of the same material?
Did you know that you may knit tighter or looser depending on if you are using a wooden needle vs a metal needle? It’s true for some of us! So for example, if you made one swatch on a US 6 metal needle but made your second swatch on a US 7 wooden needle, they may both measure a similar stitch gauge due to how your tension fluctuates depending on needle material.
The “edge effect” (and your swatch may be too small)
I always recommend making a swatch that is wider than 4″ so that you can measure just the inside of your fabric and not include your edges (click here to read more about swatch measuring basics). The reason for this is the “edge effect” – your stitches on either edge may be tighter or looser then the rest of your fabric. This could be due to natural tension changes at the beginning/end of row, if you added a trim edge, or if you worked your swatch in the round.
So the problem may be that you’re not getting an accurate gauge measurement in one or both of the swatches if you are measuring edge to edge and including those edge stitches.
You may need a larger “sampling size” of fabric
When you measure a swatch, you are measuring over 4″ worth of fabric (since pattern gauge in patterns is listed as over 4″). Think of that as a ‘sampling size’ of your fabric. Typically that amount of fabric width is enough to provide a good average of your stitches per inch. But in some yarns, your own tension may fluctuate a bit more (even within 1 row) and so 4″ may not be enough of a sampling size to get a good average.
So if you have 2 swatches knit with 2 different needle sizes but they both seem to measure the same number of stitches over 4″, one thing to try is to measure both over a larger amount of fabric – so in essence, increasing your sampling size! This is why I usually recommend making swatches that are at least 6″ wide so that it allows you to increase your sampling size should you need to.
I hope one of this tips comes in handy should you ever find yourself with 2 swatches on 2 different needles and the same gauge! If you have additional tips I’d love to hear them – send me a message to share!