I know how to count a stockinette swatch but for the life of me, I can not or should I say I don’t know how to count the stitches of a lace and cable swatch I just knitted. The stitches are not as clearly defined as the stockinettes(duh!)Can someone please help me with this problem?
It is harder to do, for sure.
but you probably know how many stitches you cast on and worked with. I would probably measure the size of the swatch without the edge stitches (that should be visible), since they tend to be more lose or curled under (usually the latter) and therefore are not acurate measuring. Then you have e.g. 6 inches and 20 stitches. To calculate that to 4 inches:… that would be 13 1/3 stitches for 4 inches.
If your lace would be very even you could also try to count on 4 inches. But since lace tends to use more stitches for some places than for other, I would at least measure a repeat, better the whole swatch.
Measure across a stitch pattern repeat you know how many sts are in it, then figure it from that.