Swatches

I love that my husband knows about swatches.  I'm trying to figure out some projects to take to Mexico. and instead of buying new yarn, I've decided to knit from my stash.  I have some Trekking sock yarn that I'd tried to make into socks a couple years ago and some other fingerweight yarn.  I wanted to knit them double, so I held them up together and said, "Do you think these will look good together?"

Jordan's response, "Why don't you knit a swatch and find out or start knitting the sweater so you don't waste yarn on a swatch."

Brillant man.

I decided to knit a swatch.  Partly because I also wasn't sure what size needles to use and I needed to find a gauge for the sweater I'd decided to knit for Liam.  I started with US 7 and they work perfectly to give me 5.25 sts/in in a nice, not to tight, not too loose fabric.  

I'm hoping that the strips aren't as stripy in a larger garment.  So far, they're good!

Note: For a regular swatch, you'll want to knit a 4×4" square, block it, and measure both stitch and row gauge.  I'm not so concerned with row gauge for this project and stitch gauge can be somewhat estimated, so I knit a smaller piece and didn't block it.