So, I think I remember reading somewhere, that you can swatch flat by knitting kinda like a big i-cord - knit across, leave a loose loop across the back, knit again, etc. Does that sound right? Or am I going to have to figure out how to swatch in the round?
I am planning a sweater for dh – was going to be Durrow, but as Magknits went belly up, it is going to be Durrow inspired, following the knitters handy book of sweater patterns for a saddle shoulder, knitting the body in the round bottom-up… and I still need to pick a cable from cables untangled, but I need to know my gage before I can do anything much, right?
Yep, that’s how you do it. CO about 10sts more than you need for 4", knit the first row, slide it back to the needle tip, leave a loose strand of yarn and knit it again. And repeat. This mimics knitting in the round. If you want to incorporate a cable in there too so you see how much it draws in compared to plain stockinette, you might want to do that too.
Yes, that is the theory. It should work better than a flat swatch, but I don’t know if it really does for me. It probably does for most “normal” people. LOL I’ve tried it and just opt for a regular flat swatch, it works about the same for me. You could start a sleeve (or the sweater [big swatch lol]) and use it for gauge. But some of us can get different gauge on small circumferences than on a large one, especially if you use dpns.
You should definately try the big i-cord idea and see if it works for you.
Sorry I don’t know about your swatching question, but…
Here is a web archive Durrow pattern:
http://web.archive.org/web/20070821000922/http://www.magknits.com/Oct05/patterns/durrow.htm
No pictures, but you should be able to get the pattern anyway.
ETA- if you google Wayback Machine- you’ll get to a web archive. You just paste the address of the URL in (I got it off of Ravelry) and a page comes up with dates of when the page was archived. Click on one of the dates and it will take you to an archive of the page.
I saved all Magknits patterns that I had wanted to knit this way. Some of the designers have them up on Ravelry for free, at least one is now for sale. I had 2 of them in my queue so was very happy to be able to get the patterns!
You could email the designer of it, her blog is jodigreen.ca/blog
Thanks so much - I did see on Ravelry, too, that she is going to re-write some of the pattern and put it up for free there…just as soon as she finishes her million other obligations 
but she did say she’ll send the old version to email requests, so I think I’ll do that - at the very least it will give me the cable chart and key (I found a blog that has the chart reversed…but no key!)
Crud- I didn’t realize the charts weren’t showing up. Hopefully the info is helpful for you or anyone else trying to get non-charted magknits stuff. I hate that the site went away with no warning like that!
I have been really careful to save all patterns I am interested in now!
I have done the “giant i-cord” swatch thing and I have found that it works OK but you have to do a BIG swatch. I don’t know about everyone else but I hate making gauge swatches and I get rushed. You cannot with this kind of gauge swatch. It takes me a while to get it right in the begining and it sort of wants to pull in on the edges no matter how loosely I pull the yarn behind.
Good luck!
Just remember that knitting in the round means you always knit on the same side, not knitting right side then wrong side. That’s why the swatch knit just on the right side is important.
I’m currently making a sweater in the round, after starting out flat, and my gauge over the pattterned sts is different. (I didn’t have a pattern to start, then adapted the cables I wanted to a basic raglan pattern.)
but she did say she’ll send the old version to email requests, so I think I’ll do that - at the very least it will give me the cable chart and key (I found a blog that has the chart reversed…but no key!)