Adventures in Swatching

Last night, while watching Battlestar Galactica, I knit up a feather and fan swatch for this cardigan (Ravelry link, sorry). What a perfectly delightful stitch pattern! Anyway, the pattern calls for a gauge of 6 sts/inch and I got a gauge of 5.8. I tore out my swatch and started it again on smaller needles. I knit about an inch or so before I was forced by extreme exhaustion to drag myself to bed. As I lay there drifting off, I realized that this yarn will probably shrink a bit in the wash–possibly giving me the gauge I need, perhaps? My last thought before sleep overtook me was that I shouldn’t have frogged the first swatch. The plan today is to reknit the swatch with the larger needles and wash it before I measure it. Hooray! Sweater knitting adventures!