Getting to Know Your Yarn

This week I'm working on several yarn reviews for the site and I'm thinking again about how valuable a sort of exploratory swatch can be.

Especially when you're working with a yarn without a ball band or that doesn't give recommendations for what size needle you should use or how many stitches per inch you should be getting, knitting a swatch starting with a needle size that feels right to you and then trying a couple of others to see how they look can be very handy.

If you have an idea of how you would like a yarn to drape in the project you're planning for it, or you want to see how a particular stitch pattern would look knit in a couple of different gauges, this sort of "start and see what happens" swatch can give you a lot of information without a lot of work.