Persistent Knitter

What do you do when planning a sweater? Find a pattern you like. Find yarn that works with the pattern requirements (think gauge here) in some pleasing color combination(s). This is what I’ve been going through with Ingeborg. I like the pattern, have decided it would make a great sweater for my mom. I found some yarn that is pleasant to knit with, and has a good range of colors to choose from. My swatch came out well and I’m ready to get started casting on. But WAIT! There are a few more steps here.

Gauge
Measuring your gauge on the swatch is pretty important, so I (finally) did that. I’m getting about 7.5 st/inch. The pattern calls for 7 st/inch. I didn’t really measure in a very accurate way, so I might measure again. The best way is to lay the swatch out without stretching on a flat surface, then using a ruler mark two inches apart (or four if your swatch is large enough) with pins. Remove the ruler, then count the number of stitches and do the necessary division. I have a few pet peeves with gauge. 1) I never seem to get the same gauge on the actual garment as I do on the swatch. 2) Unless you do your swatch exactly like you are going to make the garment, same needles, same relative circumference for items in the round, you end up with problem #1. With Ingeborg, I’m close to the pattern gauge that I could probably start the body, and then a few inches in measure it to see if I’m close to the finished measurement. If I am, I’ll keep going, if not, then I’ll probably rip out and change the number of stitches I cast on.

How much yarn?
Once you have chosen the yarn, you need to determine how much of it you need. You can do this easily if your gauge matches exactly that required in the pattern. If you’re off (especially in row gauge as I usually am) then you’ll need more or less yarn than the pattern says. Ingeborg is a Dale pattern, and I’ve heard they cut it pretty close for the amount of required yarn. I always like to overestimate because I hate worrying about having enough yarn for a project.

For Ingeborg, I’m only using two colors. MC + CC1 = 500g in the size I’ll be making. Add another 50g for saftey and I’ll need 550g total. That’s 19.4 ounces or 1.2lbs of yarn. I don’t think I’m doing the frilly edging, but I will need 350g + 50g saftey for CC2. That’s 14.1 ounces. The yarn I’ve chosen comes on 1lb cones. Currently I have a not-quite-full cone of the MC/CC1. I have a full cone of the CC2. Oops, I’m definately short on the MC/CC1 needed.
Looking at my swatch, maybe I want to do the button band/border in CC2 instead. Still – I would need 350g + 100g +50g, and that’s still over a lb of one color. I’ll have to ponder this, but not for too long, as the Borg-along is supposed to start May 15th!

Needles
I realized today that the Borg uses the same size needles as Hardangervidda. Strange in some ways as Hardangervidda calls for a sport weight yarn, and Ingeborg is made with fingering weight yarn. The stockinette on Hardangervidda is knit with 3.0mm, and the patterning on the Borg is on 3.0mm. I had a moment of panic thinking I’d actually have to finish the body of the one sweater before starting the other. Thankfully the borg sweater will be much smaller around than Hardangervidda and I can use my 32" length circular just fine. Whew!

A few things to ponder in the color department – I need to get in touch with my yarn source and find out how long it would take to get the extra yarn in (or maybe they already have some in stock? Hmm). I’m bummed I’m not ready to cast on yet, but glad I did the extra calculations now! I can’t imagine how demoralizing it would be to get done with the body and part of one sleeve only to run out of yarn.

PS
As of 11pm Mon night, still no baby. :/