Persistent Knitter

The nanny sweater progresses. Here’s the back, which so far is 4" of ribbing and 1/3" of "pattern":

I did do a swatch. I forgot to take pictures of it. Well, I did take pictures but they were so horrible they had to be deleted instantly before they burned my eyes out.

My swatch was approx 6" wide (two repeats of 19 stitches each, plus the 7 stitches of moss/seed stitch to close out the other side), and about 5 inches long. I tried two needle sizes.  Started with 4mm; which is what is called for the in pattern.  I am substituting a different yarn than the pattern calls for, but it’s the same gauge and by the same manufacturer, so I figured I could start with the called for needles.

After 1.5 inches of swatching, I thought my moss stitch (which is really just *k1p1* repeated, then knit the purls, purl the knits, AKA seed stitch in other worlds) looked a bit loose. Laying flat it seemed ok, but when held up to the light there were areas the had some holes.  (Gee, a picture here would be really nice. yeah, right).

So I used my leftover koigu from the cross stitch scarf and knit two rows as a divider, then switched to 3.25mm needles.   It definately drew in a bit more, because you can see it wasn’t as wide. To me the purl bumps on the moss stitch looked not quite as wide, but it still had the same problem with the "holes" occasionally.

A good friend (hi, Judy!) suggested I wash it, as the yarn might bloom out after washing. Well, it did, and it didn’t.  The swatch filled in more, but the holes are still there.  Hmph.  It also stretched slightly horizontally - making gauge go from approx 6.3 st/inch in pattern to 5.6ish st/inch in pattern. This was probably the effect of blocking the cable portions of the swatch.

The fabric on both was fine, although less thick than I expected.  I waffled for about an hour before casting on for the back.  I couldn’t decide if the holesin the moss stitch were something I was doing, or a product of the yarn. I’ve since decided it’s both!

Yarn Consistency?

The yarn has a very handspun feel to it.  (For those who don’t remember, it’s Rowan’s Yorkshire Tweed DK).  It isn’t tightly spun; and has definate thin spots and thick spots, usually where a slub of color is added.  I think the holes in my moss stitch areas are where the thin spots of yarn are, and something wierd is happening because I knit continental.

When I knit ribbing, the first purl stitch to the left of the knit stitches is always wider than the rest.  Only a really picky person would see it (me!), but I haven’t found a way to correct it yet.  Since moss stitch is knit purl knit purl and so on, it must be something happening when I switch from knit to purl.  Again, I have no idea what to do about it, and as long as I don’t mention it to the recipient of the sweater, I don’t think she’ll ever say anything :)

I will be taking the sweater, such as it is to my knitting group this saturday and asking for some collective wisdom on it.  For now, here’s a detail shot to show you I’m not knitting a black sweater.  The center of this picture shows where I’ve crossed the first cable.