Needle size is immaterial. Gauge is all that matters.I rarely make a gauge swatch. Then again, I rarely make anything fitted. When I do, I’m more apt to adjust the number of stitches than the needle size.
For instance, I knit socks with light fingering weight yarn on US 0 (2 mm) needles. Smaller stitches mean less friction, less wear on the fabric. If the sock is too small, I’m not going to switch to a larger needle, I’m going to add stitches to the pattern.
Hats? Mittens? I go with the recommended needle size and adjust the number of stitches if things aren’t working out. I guess that makes the object itself the gauge swatch.
When I make the infrequent sweater, I will often let the sleeves be my gauge swatch. Which is why a certain sweater has never made it beyond the sleeve stage. And I certainly try to find the needle size that will give me gauge rather than re-work all the sweater math!
I understand her insistence on gauge swatches. It would never occur to me to blame the designer if things didn’t work out and I hadn’t swatched. I like the idea of a pattern that calls for a “gauge-sized needle.” But I’m not that far removed from a knitter who needs at least a starting place for a gauge swatch. These days, I could make a pretty good guess. But as a beginning knitter? Don’t make me guess from 0-17 (2-12 mm)! The ball band usually has a starting place suggestion, but we don’t always have a ball band any more, do we? We trade yarn, we are gifted with handspun, and things just... get lost.
I think it might be a while before pattern publishers let her designs go without a suggested needle size as a gauge starting point. But it has got me thinking about measuring my gauge after the fact and including the info on Ravelry, in the neatly provided space for it. Recording what needle size I used only helps me, not anyone else who comes along and wants to mimic what I did.
After all this blathering, I feel compelled to provide a picture of knitting, so here you go.
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