Archive of Thread: Marking tensions on swatches Back

3 years ago
When knitting swatches, the general convention is to create eyelets in the first few rows of a swatch to record the stitch dial (carriage dial) number of the swatch.
What do you do to indicate the the "clicks" between the numbers?   

What about recording the mast tension dial setting? Do you have tricks for this?

3 years ago
I make eyelet on alternate needles to indicate the main number, then leave 5 needles in work and make a further one or 2 eyelets to indicate the dots.

To be honest, I almost never change the mast tension unless a particularly thick or thin yarn drags or pulls out too quickly.and on the rare occasions when I've changed it I don't think I've ever recorded the fact.  I suspect that's earned me a demerit now!

Jenny  

3 years ago
Thanks Jenny,
I agree, I don't change my mast tension either, but I never try to match gauge.

One tip I've heard about the clicks is to make knots in the tail of yarn.
If the tension is 7plus 2 clicks, mark 7 eyelets and tie 2 knots in the tail.

IMHO, string tags are really the best, just write down the settings LOL!  

But I was curious if I was missing something.

Sue

3 years ago
While reading this topic it reminded me of a question I have asked of the air on occasions.....when a pattern says to decrease tension by one (or increase) does it mean one click or one whole point.  In doing neckbands I have gone for a whole point and it has worked.

3 years ago
I think this is open to interpretation.  I guess it just depends on the situation.  If you are already knitting at tension 3 and you want to tighten the tension for the start of a band, a whole number is going to get pretty tight (tightening to 0), so tightening by clicks would be better.
 

3 years ago
I think a pattern which doesn't specify is badly written!  For clarity it should always say "one whole number" or "one click" or something similar.  On the whole, if it doesn't actually say I think it would usually mean one whole number, but as Sue says, context is everything.

Jenny