I’ve found that if i just start out knitting something, after about 30 minutes my gauge relaxes. Since that’s about how long it takes me to make a swatch, I don’t swatch for something important until after I’ve already been knitting something for a while… then, I make sure to start working on the garment after I’ve had some warm up knitting, as well. We need to warm up a little… Michael Phelps doesn’t jump right in the pool, does he?