Silly, make the whole swatch

Last night I tried again. I had made started the gauge swatch a couple of nights ago. By the first inch it was obvious that I was not going to hit gauge. I could only get 26sts in 4inches and needed 32. I tried twice more with smaller needles to no avail. I emailed the designer in hopes that she had some pointers, which she did (thanks!): try a making smaller size of the sweater to accommodate the larger stitches. Bummer.

Since I was going to have to do more swatching to try to figure out which of the smaller sizes to make, I decided to try the suggested size needles once more. The difference this time was that I didn't stop at 1 inch, I kept on going. And, wouldn't you know it, by 2 inches, the swatch was starting to pull up more. And by 4 inches, I had the correct gauge...
Ok, lesson learned. Next time I will make the whole swatch before deciding what needles I should use.

Three sweet switched Swiss witches watch three washed Swiss witch Swatch watch switches. Which sweet switched Swiss witch watches which washed Swiss witch Swatch watch switch?
~ Tongue Twister (from wikiquote)