The great Amanda Knitalong of 2014 was the source of an incredible amount of learning — even if you weren’t knitting along! There’s one post in particular I hope everyone will take the time to read (or reread) regardless of any intention to ever knit the sweater in question. It’s a post by my friend Kate Gagnon Osborn, of Kelbourne Woolens, that’s ostensibly about how to knit an Amanda swatch. But it is so full of juicy nuggets and smart thinking about everything from swatching to yarn substitution to how stitch patterns affect gauge, that it’s like a master class in a single post. It made me a much smarter knitter. Seriously, go read it: How to knit and measure a cable swatch.

.