The thing about gauge

Some knitters love it, some knitters (me) HAAAAATE it – the Gauge Swatch. Here is why I hate it. You go to the yarn store and you find the perfect yarn for that oh-so-cute cropped sweater from the latest edition of Interweave Knits that you’ve been staring at every day. It’s a little more pricey than you wanted, but it’s so perfect you buy it anyway – and hey! Aren’t you a member of the Fiber Fan Club that gives you a 5% discount on all your purchases?! So there you go! You race home, dig out the pattern and needles, pour yourself a tasty beverage and bowl of snacks, and settle into the couch for a glorious afternoon of knitting and veg-ing. And just as you’re ready to start visualizing how cute you’ll look in your one-of-a-kind shrug, you realize you can’t start yet because you have to make your gauge swatch. You contemplate ignoring that first paragraph of the directions and just hoping it’s the right size, but remember how much money you just spent on the yarn. So you swatch away. And instead of spending a pleasant afternoon daydreaming and knitting, you spent the rest of your day fighting to find the right set of needles, trying not to race through the 30 some rows so that you knit normally (and hopefully to the right gauge). You worry about holding the yarn “normally” and end up making it way too tight or way too loose in your attempts to be natural. By the time you get the gauge right it’s 10 pm and you are so sick of that stupid yarn you never want to use it again. But you will, and you know you will.