Persistent Knitter

Decisions to make. Yarn to swatch.  Now I’m more swatching to see how the yarn looks in the given pattern, rather than getting exact gauge measurements. I’ll measure the gauge and use it to slightly adjust the pattern numbers if necesary; but I’m not going to assume that it’s going to come out the same in the sweater.

Here’s the real stuff you’ve been wanting to see:

Starting from the left. Blue Cascade 220 (not superwash), Azure (really a green) Shelridge Farms fingering weight. Red/Rust Rowan Wool Cotton (already started on the swatch there), approx DK weight? and the white is superwash Cascade 220.  I didn’t like any of the colors of the superwash in the LYS, which is OK cuz I was only getting some to swatch. I couldn’t resist the heathered blue, it’s got such wonderful depth of color inthe yarn.

The Azure/green fingering weight is supposed to be a lacy sweater from Gathering of Lace or a Dale pattern I found that I might adapt (maybe). The other three are all fighting to win the battle of being the yarn for the cabled sweater I want to make. 

I’m concerned the Cascade yarn will be too thick – I tend to get warm very easily.  But I love the color of the blue Cascade 220 yarn. Yummy!   I also know the yarn will be at the right scale for the sweater I’m going to knit, because that’s what it was designed for.

The Rowan yarn might not be able to hold up to being in a cabled sweater or might not be at the right scale.  I’m making my swatch(es) fairly large – I’m doing three of the different cable patterns.  When I mentioned to the clerk at the LYS that all Ineeded was one ball of the cascade because I was swatching, she said, "Oh good! We always like to hear that you’re going to swatch". I immediately responded with "Oh, but I’m not going to actually measure gauge from it. My swatches always lie to me".  She seemed a bit dissappointed then.

As I’ve thought about this yarn coming, and the beautiful color of it;
I can’t help but think how much fun it would be to do a really pretty
cabled sweater.  (Nevermind what I originally had slotted it for when I ordered it).  Lots of texture, and very different from all the fair
isle knitting I’ve been doing lately.  So far I’ve only started glancing through my knitting books.  One that I really like is
Inishmore, from Fisherman’s Sweaters.  You can see a good picture of it
here.   Another one that appeals is Inishmaan, shown here knit by Wendy of Wendy Knits.

The problem is the yarn I just got is fingering weight.  Both of these
sweater patterns call for Aran weight yarn. Quite a bit of difference!
I tend to like the lighter weight yarn because then the sweater isn’t
so bulky and I’ll actually have more chances to wear it.   Not to be daunted by the wrong yarn, I am examing my possibillities. I have another yarn in my stash (well aged) that might work; but still isn’t aran weight, and is fairly close to the yarn gauge called for in the Inishmore pattern.

Can I substitute this yarn?

My Math
I guessed the amount of draw in caused by the pattern this way.
278 stitches in body of sweater. – 2 for seams = 276.
276 stitches / 51" = 5.4 stitches/inch

Obviously there is some draw in with the cabling pattern.  The percent amount of draw in is : 8%
So to take my ball band gauge and get the same amount of draw in: 6.5sts/inch in pattern (using the 24sts/4 inch side)

So, if I use the same number of cast on stitches (276 sts) the size of my sweater in the Rowan Wool-Cotton yarn will be:  42.5"

Note that the ball weight is remarkably different for each yarn. That means if I can use approx the same number of balls; my sweater will be half the weight of the thicker yarn!

Now, the amount of draw in on the smaller yarn might not be as much; which means I’d get a bit more ease. I tend to knit looser than I always think I will anyway; so I’ll get a bit more ease from that.

Now, I don’t know if this is a valid way to calculate if there is going to be enough yarn or not, or what the final size will be.  It seems reasonable to me, and on the cautious side. If you look at pure yardage, I’ll have enough since I have 20 balls of the Rowan Wool-Cotton.

The only other yarn I have in my stash that I might want ot use is some Mission Falls 1824 wool. It’s only 85 yards/ball though, and I only have 16 or 18 balls of it. Not nearly enough yardage, considering it’s about the same weight as the Magpie yarn.

Will it Work?
I don’t know. Step one is to knit a swatch to see if I like the way the cables look in the smaller weight yarn; to see if I like the feel of the fabric, and to see a ballpark gauge. I say ballpark because my gauge in a swatch has never matched the final gauge in the sweater.  For those of you with more experience than I in these matters; please let me know what you think!

I picked up a beautiful bunch of yarn from my ever willing supplier, and showed it to my husband. "Honey – look at this yarn.  Isn’t the color beautiful? I’m so excited to make a sweater for myself out of it"

Being well trained, he looks at the yarn and replies, "That is really pretty yarn. But what happened to the purple cashmere stuff which is supposed to make a sweater for you?"

"That stuff is only roving right now. I still have to spin it before I can get to the make-a-sweater part"

Husband replies , "Oh", looking a big skeptical.

"Besides, I can make myself more than one sweater you know."

I personally think he’s jealous. He did put on his Hardangervidda sweater the next day.

For the record, I have currently only ever made myself 1 (one) sweater so far.  I have made many other sweaters, but always for other people.  Now I have a tough decision.  I need to determine _what_ sweater to make. I originally ordered the yarn to make a lacy sweater from Gathering of Lace. (couldn’t find a picture on the internet. sorry), but am considering a cabled sweater. More on that tomorrow!

Cleaning Fleece

Oh – and for my mom – who currently proclaims that she doesn’t think she’d really ever want to wash raw fleece. Check out this excellent how-to from Debbie: How to Wash Fleece The Easy Way (title is my own)

I finished spinning up my Blue Faced Leichester yarn. I took out some of the olive green in the middle that I didn’t really like. I did a two ply yarn, letting the colors fall where they might.  Here are the results:

That’s only one of the skeins. I got another slightly smaller skein + one small one (the leftovers from the last bobbin that I Andean plied so I wouldn’t have any leftovers).  The colors really muted down a bit when it was plied, for which I am very happy.   Orig I was going to ply it with a black strand of handspun; but I’m really glad I didn’t now.

I think I have about 7 oz of this.  It’s probably a sport weight yarn.  Not the most consistent, but it’ll knit up fine.  Wouldn’t you like a close up of the colors? I thought you would!

What do you think I could make out of this? The first thing that came to mind was maybe a Clapotis but I’m not really sure I want a shawl like that. It’s not tightly spun enough for socks; maybe a mitten/hat set?  Of course I can always combine it with another yarn in a project, but the colors in this are so strong,it’d have to be just the right thing.  Ideas?

Despite my bad experience at the LYS with that one roving; I couldn’t resist getting a few things online. This was waiting for me on the front porch today:

Say it with me now, "Ooooh. Yum"

The dark blue is a 100% Merino (Colonial – I think that might be a brand?).  It looks really blue in the picture; but not so much in person. The color name of this one is Navy.  After the sad purple/blue from the LYS, I thought this might make up for it. 

I was right!

The lighter greyish blue was more of a shot in the dark.  It’s a wool/silk combo and it was hard to tell from the picture or name of it what color it was.  "McKenzie" is not a color name in my opinion. I thought it might have been more of a sage green; but it turns out to be more of a denim blue.   The sheen on it is gorgeous.  I think it’ll spin up really nicely.

Btw, I got these from http://www.kendigcottage.com/ . Great service. I got the order in 4 days total with a fairly reasonable shipping price.   go order, tell ‘em I sent you – maybe I’ll get some free fiber (like I need it. That’s 3 lbs of fiber total in this picture alone).

I’ve been on a bit of a fiber kick lately. My mom visited (see previous post for her in her new Bjerk sweater) and we went on a shopping trip to a few LYS.  I didn’t buy anything at the first store (yay me!) but did at the second.  Here is a sample of each thing from our entire haul:

Starting in the top center, in teh bag. 1 lb of a slate grey/black part silk part wool roving. Oooh yummy. I want to spin this up and use it as the main background color in a two color fair isle.  Moving clockwise, the darkish solid purple is a 100% corriedale, In the center is some blue/purple wool/silk roving. More about that (dissappointment) later.  In the bottom right corner, read wool/silk roving (1 lb worth). Small balls of multicolor 100% merino rovings.  A solid blue corriedale, then the slate wool/silk ball out of the bag.   

My mom purchased around 3 lbs of stuff to spin. I only bought 1.5 lbs.

The blue/purple in the center was a huge dissappointment. It was NOT what was advertised. I’m really quite unhappy with it, so much so that I called the shop and am going to return it this next weekend.  The card on it said the content was wool/silk.  The colors (as you can clearly see even in this picture) are purple and blue.  The name of the color on the label is "Boysenberry Blitz".  When I unwrapped it to spin; I found a hideous mint green color (like what’s in the center of a flat rectangular chocolate mint you get from a restaurant) in the center of the roving that you couldn’t SEE until you had started to draft it out for spinning.   

I spun up a small sample, and then realized the whole thing is riddled with noils.  TONS of them.  There was no listing of "silk noils" anywhere on the label.  You couldn’t see the noils until you had separated out a strand and drafted it a bit (and held it up to a bright light) and then spun it.   The stuff was expensive. $7/ounce expensive.  It’s going back.  If it had been listed as having noils, I wouldn’t have been upset about that, but I expected a perfectly smooth yarn from this.  That and the hidden color in the center pushed me over the edge.

The spun yarn is UGLY.  I tried to take a picture of it, but due to my horrible camera skills and horrible lighting the ugliness didn’t come across.   Anothing thing that happend is the yarn the skien was wrapped in was a glitzy awful novelty yarn and each one of the novelty bits caught in the roving as I was trying to unwrap it. 

Lesson: Check it really really thoroughly before you buy it. Don’t trust the tag (sad but true).  I don’t think my expectations were unreasonable – for it to be labelled properly with the content (include Noils, esp when there are that many!); and don’t hide a wierd color. A spun up sample in the shop of it would have solved that problem nicely.

The final recipient in her sweater:

I had to lighten the picture because it was dark when we took it and the colors didn’t show up very well. She’s really not that washed out in real life! :)  The sweater fits perfectly; the yarn softened wonderfully when washed (I used Dale Falk for it). Finishing wasn’t too bad on it; although lots of ends to weave in.  I really like the neckline on this one – much nicer than a simple crew neck with ribbing.  This project gets an A+ !

It’s official – Knit Visualizer 1.0 is released! You can buy it here or download the free demo and manual from that page as well to see what it’s all about. 

Now to go soak my head in a bucket of cold water :)