Swatch Ruler & Pattern Chart Marker Set
with instructor Steve Butler
Class 121
What is it? – What is so special about knitting and crochet? Why are we inextricably drawn to them? It’s the opiate of creative expression. It’s almost intoxicating what we can do with yarns, needles and hooks. We can find creative examples all the way from grandma to Dolce & Gabbana. Trending projects in fashion and fashion accessories, home décor and amazing independent pieces abound. A quick trip to a favorite yarn haunt or cruising a favorite site online reveals an unending, even inexhaustible stream of patterns and inspiration. In this era of expanding creative endeavor, modern textile processes and world-wide search and sourcing presents us with an ever-expanding and unlimited variety of amazing yarns representing exciting new colors and textures. Ah yes, it all sounds good but, unfortunately, it’s all easier said than done. How do we get there, from the vaunted creative inspiration to the treasured finished piece? Every journey begins with a single step, and it is a journey. First, we need to make sure our personal technique along with selected needle or hook sizes and yarns all combine to produce the desired result. In short, we need to do a test swatch. A correct assessment of gauge is a necessary step to ensure that our finished project matches our pattern goals. Clover’s Swatch Ruler and Needle Gauge is the master of this important preparatory step. The next step is the pattern itself, that sometimes-wicked set of instructions that may be as hard to see as it is to follow. How do we navigate through line after tiny line of all of those detailed and usually complex graphic representations of knitting, crochet or needlepoint instructions? Clover’s Pattern Chart Marker is the ultimate knitting and crochet GPS to get us error free from the beginning to the end of even the most complex instructions. Those are two products from Clover that will ensure that your creative journey is a pleasant and rewarding one.
What does it do?
Clover’s Swatch Ruler and Needle Gauge is the ultimate tool for any knitting or crochet aficionado. This one tool allows us to measure both gauge and knitting needle or crochet hook size. Swatch Ruler – It’s so important to anything we do in knitting or crochet that we have an accurate measurement of both stitch gauge and row gauge. Once we have our knitted or crocheted swatch, we need to measure stitches and rows across four inches to get a good average. Proper adjustments rely on this accuracy. Clover’s four-inch square swatch ruler allows us to lay the ruler on our fabric and count both stitches and rows ensuring accuracy without ever moving the gauge. We don’t want to measure rows in one place and stitches in another.
Knitting Needle and Crochet Hook Gauge – Using the correct size knitting needle or crochet hook is essential to achieving our creative intent. Why do we need to measure them? Two reasons. First, we now live in a small global community. Knitting and crochet patterns are available worldwide and the size designations on them might not be familiar to us. The knitting needle and crochet hook gauge shows all sizes in US, European (metric) and Japanese sizes making conversion easy. We’ll always have the right size. Secondly, we might not always have sizes marked on our needles or hooks. Some get old and are worn, some we get from family, friends or even more obscure sources and we just can’t find the size. Now we can measure. Takes all of the mystery out of needle or hook selection.
Clover’s Pattern Chart Marker is an essential tool for anyone working from instructions in a chart form. The marker is constructed of heavy duty, durable vinyl. It folds in half and is magnetic. This allows us to fold it over our pattern sheet and the magnetic function holds it securely in place until we need to move on to the next line. This allows us to zero in on our current row. Markings on the tool allow us to keep track of each square along that line. This all makes even the most complicated charts easy to track. The Pattern Chart Maker is complete with two markers, 9″ and 12″ to accommodate any size chart or book page we may be working from.
How do I share it? – Both the Swatch Ruler and Needle Gauge and the Pattern Chart Marker are easy tools to show off. Present them with step outs or demonstrate in class the process of gauge measurements and corresponding adjustments with the Swatch Gauge. So important and yet so simple, it will be seen as a necessary addition to any knitting or crochet studio. The Pattern Chart Marker will demonstrate itself. Just attach one to the instructions on a free standing pattern and another to pattern instructions in a book or magazine. Both are accessories that everyone will value and want to have in their kit.