Gauge Swatch
There is NO WAY you can make this sweater without making a gauge swatch. We need this to calculate how many stitches to cast on and how many rows we need to make the length. Since I am a lazy girl, I always make my swatches by casting on 25 stitches and I work for 35 rows, this makes it easier to get your necessary calculations. Of course you can use ANY amount to cast on with, and work for ANY amount of rows, you don’t have to use my numbers. So If you want to you could cast on 20 and work for 20 rows, do what you feel comfortable with but I use those numbers because it gives you a nice swatch to measure.
TIP
If you have chosen a high end yarn, now would be the time to put it thru the test, i.e. iron it, wash it, pull it, stretch it, step on it etc. This way you can see how the yarn is going to hold up or react before you make a complete sweater.
Measurements
Number one rule of thumb NO MATTER WHAT YOU THINK YOUR LAP IS NOT FLAT.
Always lay whatever you need to measure on a hard flat surface. This is the only way you will get an accurate measurement.
Fudging
Sometimes you will need to “Fudge” numbers. No matter how hard we try, you won’t always end up with an even number of stitches for say a sleeve, neck or waist ribbing. Now my theory is instead of ripping out all your hard work, you can “Fudge” and either decrease 1 or add one. It is NOT ok to “Fudge” say 10 or 20 stitches, if you have to do that then you do, unfortunately, have to rip it out. Let’s just say your “Gauge Swatch” measures 5 3/4 to the inch and you just don’t want to deal with that other 1/4 , it is PERFECTLY ok to just go ahead and FUDGE use 6 to the inch. Not everyone agrees with this but I swear to you I have made several raglan sweaters and I have FUDGED, and no one knew, you can’t see it, the sweaters still fit perfectly (no sleeves longer than the other, not overly big, etc. etc.).
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