The Case of the Gauge Swatch

I was so thrilled to see the Japan-inspired patterns in the latest issue of Crochet Today!. I was even more pleased when the dear hubby said I could order the yarn needs for the "Lantern Pullover". The yarn arrived last weekend, but I had major jitters about starting such a massive project, so it wasn't until Thursday night that I decided to start by working up the gauge swatch.

Normally I crochet rather loosely and several projects have taught me to automatically start with the hook size down from what the pattern calls for. So I picked up the B hook (cringing at its smallness) and worked up the swatch. What should have been 4 x 4 was 4 x 3.5.

Okay.

So I decided to actually use the size C hook that the pattern called for (feeling more than a little surprised). The resulting gauge was 4 x 3.5.

The stupid things are identical. Absolutely identical (well except where you can see I accidentally added a stitch).

At that point, I was getting more than a little frustrated, so I have yet to make a third swatch (my next plan of action is to use a size D hook), but I am seriously perplexed as to why the gauge is identical even though the hook size was different. Did I really crochet that differently in the span of a few minutes? And it definitely doesn't really inspire me and get me exited about doing the whole darn thing when I'm having so much trouble with the gauge swatches! So any words of wisdom would be appreciated. Otherwise, I'm going to just keep plowing on.