Friday night I washed and blocked Hey Teach.
hey Teach, Blocking
After I laid it out, I measured it because it looked way too big. The back piece measured 27 inches and each front measured 14 inches. Uh-oh. That’s 55 inches once it’s sewn together, without the button band! The size I knit was supposed to be the 46.75 inch size. See the problem here? Yeah… me too. Once the 1 inch button band is added, that’s a total of 56 inches around which makes it 9.25 inches bigger then the size it should be. I tried not to panic. I told myself “Oh it will shrink when it dries, I should wait and measure it then!” So, I waited, trying not to panic.
Saturday I checked it again. It was really close to being dry. The size hadn’t changed. I checked the gauge and found that I had 3.5 stitches and 5 rows per inch. I pulled out the pattern and found that I should have 4.25 stitches and 6 rows per inch. Uh-oh. I thought about my options here. Washing and drying wouldn’t work to shrink 9 inches away, so I knew that there was only one option: FROG. I was upset and wanted to cry. I thought about what I could have done differently and why my gauge could have changed so much when I washed it. That’s when it hit me: I didn’t wash and block the gauge swatch! I knit a small gauge swatch, saw that I was getting 4.25 stitches and 6 rows per inch on US 8’s, frogged the swatch and started the sweater. I checked gauge again on the sweater to find it was the same, so I just kept knitting. I was impatient and wanted to get the sweater started rather then wait around for a swatch to dry.
I noticed recently that my gauge didn’t differ from the pre-washed swatch to the post-washed swatch, so I thought I could get away with not washing the swatch and going with the pre-washed gauge. I know this may be a shock to you, but not all yarns behave the same after washing! I know, weird isn’t it? Hahahahaa 🙂 Really, though, I know this. All yarns are different and change in different ways when washed, so I think that my impatience convinced me that my gauge doesn’t change when washed and I should just go for it. Here’s the results of my “just going for it”:
Each front piece wraps almost all the way across me
A better idea of what one side looks like and how far across it goes
I knit another gauge swatch on a few different size needles, washed and blocked it and found that I should have used US 7’s. Last night, I frogged the entire sweater, so it now looks like this:
Hey Teach, frogged
I’ll start again soon, on US 7’s and hopefully I won’t be frogging this again! 🙂
Ms Lindz - My little corner of the internet 
Oh nooooo. I definitely feel for you. What a brave thing to do and frog that whole thing. Big hugs {{{{{}}}}}
OH! Sweet pea! I’m hugging you right now. I’m not using the Cascade, but this does not appear to be boding well for me either (of the swatchless, washless variety). At least it was a fast knit, right?
Oh, you poor thing! This is my first time reading your blog, but I nearly cried when I saw that you’d had to frog that entire beautiful sweater! The good news is you’ll be able to do it again even faster, and I know it will look beautiful when it’s done. But that was very brave of you, to frog the whole thing!
Thank you for reminding us how important swatching is. Not that I do it that often. Ouch.
Having been in this situation before I know what you’re feeling. It’s a good lesson on swatching though!
Oh dear, how sad! But it looks so great, so I really hope you will find the strength to start all over again. It will be wonderful on you!
Take good care!
I’ve been knitting consistently for over 40 years and have never washed a swatch. But this is a lesson for me, too, with all the new yarns and fibers and production processes, I’ll have to learn to do this. I’d rather rip it out than have something I don’t like; If need be, I’ll rip it out immediately and re-start like you did, then you have boo-boo followed by success. Even tho I don’t mind ripping, I feel for you. I’m glad you’re not daunted by this.
I had to frog mine too- I was looking at a whole foot wider than I was supposed to be making, and I DID wash and block a swatch beforehand! Grr!