Swatching, swatching!

Anyone who knows my knitting style (how many are there I wonder), knows I hate swatching. I find it tedious and boring and avoid it when I can. I've made successful sweaters and accessories without swatches. The only time, in fact, when I underestimated my gauge was during a tutorial on sock making. SInce it was only a tutorial, I didn't really care. However, now that I've got a cool pattern for WW socks, and more importantly, am planning to branch out into designing, playing with swatches is going to be more important than ever. I'm starting out small, with cowls and scarves, and think my investment in Elizabeth Zimmerman and Barbara Walker is going to pay off, but I need to know if the lace patterns I'm making up on the fly will work. And I will not do that with a full size project. I'm thinking of designing a soft cowl with chroma worsted and that is a single ply yarn which is not very forgiving of frogging and tinking. Since I want to make at least two sizes available, I need to work out my gauge so i can predict what finished size I'll get. I may even enjoy it. Who knows. Wish me luck. :)