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Category: yarns

Swatch Happy

I spent a few days playing with swatches. Rather than being tedious, I found the process to be quite a bit of fun.

Now I am excited about knitting new things, even if some of these particular swatches don't end up leading directly to specific projects. The whole process made me think about saving my swatches, about starting a notebook with information regarding yarns and fibers and notes about ideas. I've never been consistently good at this. I start, then abandon the attempt and toss everything away. Why? I really don't have an answer but suspect it lies along the spectrum of not taking my creative explorations seriously enough. That has changed, and so perhaps has my need to just play and record ideas, successful or not. In the past, my need to declutter, to not be overwhelmed by stuff, won out over the need for maintaining notebooks and swatch ideas. Perhaps that dynamic is shifting. At the moment I am as happy with the processes of exploring the nature of knitted fabrics, planning, and techniques as I am with the actual making of wearable garments.

But onto swatches.

The whole thing started with these two — Noro Yukata (pink) and Nora Kakigori (blue-purple). When I f first saw the Yukata, I thought of Stephen West's Spectra scarf, which I have been itching to knit again, and I bought the Kakigori to use with it in that project. The Yukata is classified as a sport-weight yarn and the Kakigori as DK. I thought the combination would give a rustically casual vibe to the wrap. Since I was uncertain, however, and the scarf is knit in garter stitch, I decided to go the swatch route rather than just plunging in and starting the shawl. I am happy I swatched.

The Yukata, ended up knitting into a thicker fabric and a larger gauge than the Kakigori, the opposite of what I expected. Also, upon wet-blocking, the Yukata grew even larger, and softer, which is good for a wrap, but the Kakigori maintained its size, shape and drape. Since the Yukata sections would be surrounded by the smaller Kakigori, I ended up not liking the way these yarns would work in this project. Yukata, might work nicely on a larger needle, perhaps a size 6 or a 7 instead of a 4 with a different DK or worsted weight yarn. I am thinking Mad Tosh now, but this project is on hold because I also decided that although I love both of the swatches, neither of them says "Spectra" to me, and they are destined for different paths.

I have decided the Yukata wants to be a sweater. Although I have noted a couple of ideas, I have not yet moved forward on those. I do know that I am not fond of the Yukata in garter stitch, at least at this gauge, although I may find it acceptable on larger needles.

As to the Kakigori, I loved the garter stitch swatch, love the weight and the drape and think it would make a wonderful fall cardigan or pullover that would work for many of the cooler months in Tennessee because of its predominantly cotton base. I spent some combing through my pattern books, hoping to find a pattern that was similar to the idea in my head, and in the end just decided to do the math and come up with my own pattern. I determined that I needed one more skein of Kakigori, but alas another skein of my colorway was not available. The other colors in my local yarn shop do not shout cardigan to me, so, for the moment, this project is on hold. I am going to keep my swatch page with my various notes though. In the meantime I have found another shawl that I think will work and will use my one, roughly 700 yard skein.

And so, no current project yet in hand, I moved on to other swatches. The photo above is of Nua Sport by Stolen Stitches. I purchased the yarn in the spring of 2020 to make the Trellis Top by Carol Feller, and it has been at the top of my Ravelry Queue ever since, even though I had developed mixed feelings about the project. Swatching seemed the best place to begin. I started with size 4 needles because I once knit loosely, although that is not always the case today. Carol Feller recommends a gauge of 22 stitches and 33 rows to 4" in this yarn in stockinette. I got 24 stitches and 33 rows. Woo Hoo, I got row gauge, which is rare. I liked the fabric but worried that it was perhaps slightly too firm. I knitted another swatch on size 5 needles and got 22 stitches and 29 rows to 4" in stockinette. This fabric felt too loose. I thought that switching needle materials might make a difference. The first two swatches were knit on Signature Metal needles, and I thought I would try them on a wooden needle, but my only non-metal circular in a size 4, a knitters pride dreamz, was otherwise occupied. I wondered if trying different metal needles would make a difference. It is possible. Sometimes I see a difference, sometimes I do not. This is why I like to have multiple needles in multiple materials.

But I dithered and couldn't make up my mind, so I just decided to knit the pattern stitch swatch on the same size 4 needles and see where that got me. I ended up getting gauge: 26 stitches and 33 rows to 4 inches. Since the bulk of the sweater is in pattern, and I actually would prefer the final garment to be slightly smaller than the listed dimensions for my size, I decided further swatching was not necessary and I could move forward with this project.

Between those two sets of swatches I also swatched another Noro yarn, the aran weight Uchiwa. This yarn is a combination of cotton/viscose/and silk and knit to a light and lovely fabric in stockinette on size 7 needles. The yarn is lightly plied and does bias but is light and wearable. I would not use it in a particularly fitted garment but in something with more ease and drape, and I have a project in mind.

But first, the Trellis Top in Nua Sport. More to come.

August 29, 2022
Interweave Knits and an Interruption in plans

The new Interweave Knits arrived on Friday and I have been happily looking at the patterns. I had taken a brief flip-through at Knitting group Thursday night, but was good this time, and didn't pore over the borrowed copy so that I could anticipate curling up with my own copy.

There are three sweaters I love.

As is often the case with me, the first sweater I loved, is also a sweater about which I had to overcome a long internal dialog. I don't know why I argue with myself so much about my choices because usually my first instinct is the correct one, and if I follow that muse I am very rarely disappointed. This is not so much the case when I let my rational mind lead the way; sweaters chosen by the "you should wear this because it will x, y, or z" method are usually abysmal failures. Knitting (shopping, sewing) from the heart, always seems to work.

I had to scan the entire page for this sweater because I couldn't decide which view is best. As usual, the picture can be enlarged by clicking on it. My doubts about this sweater were the long fitted hips with the faux button placket and wondering if this sweater was a good or thing given my long torso and pear-shaped tendencies. But in the end that is unimportant. I actually wear a fair number of similar garments, and the truth of the matter is that I am far less plagued by what I "should" wear, or what other people think than I was younger. Middle age does have its advantages.

Anyway, I could immediately see the usefulness of this sweater with jeans and a turtleneck underneath for all those not warm but not cool either Spring and Fall days. I know, there I go with my turtlenecks again. It is true. I could probably be perfectly happy in a climate where I could wear a turtleneck almost every day.

I am still a little on the fence about whether I will wear this sweater without the turtleneck. I can see it with a little tank and soft linen pants and espadrilles on cooler summer days. It is not a sweater for the hot humid days of a New York August, but then, very few sweaters are suited to heat and humidity. So this one is a go. The yarn is very fine, fingering or lace-weight. I might have enough of something in my stash, but probably only a hand-dyed multicolor yarn, and I am not sure this is the look I am going for. I will need the longest length or perhaps a little extra so I don't want to skimp too closely. It is unlikely that I have enough of a suitable yarn in the stash.

On the opposite page from Zick Zack is the Parker Cardigan. This is a much more classic style, more fitted and structured, and I have always had a weakness for structure and tailoring.

Even though it really shares nothing, style-wise, in common with the first sweater, it is still very much me, and I can easily incorporate this into my wardrobe. I also love the deep v-neckline. I do much better with a deeper neckline than is found in many v-neck sweaters and this will be quite good for me.

The third sweater is actually the only sweater I noticed in that first look-through on Thursday night. It is a very sweet, pretty wrap sweater with lovely lovely flower-bud like motifs at the cuffs and yoke. The sweater is by Connie Chinchio and is called Silk Cocoon Cardigan.

Now I said I noticed it Thursday night, but didn't really think further about it. Again this was a problem of my first impression (like this) battling with the mental aspect (too sweet, I'm not sweet). But then, I'm not really a tough girl either and I love the softness of this sweater and the wrap as well which gives the illusion of a waist. Here again is a sweater style that works for me, but I was letting myself be distracted by the styling of the sweater in the magazine layout, not the way the sweater would actually work in my wardrobe, on me.

Hmm, it seems that there is always much to learn and even though I had hoped to have achieved wisdom and maturity by now, I still have a long way to go.

Anyway, I love the sweater. I would wear it now if it should suddenly materialize in my closet, but we know that it just isn't going to happen. But I had a plan.

Anneliese, Gina, and I were planning on going up to Fabulous Yarns on Sunday, and I noticed from their website that they sell Blue Sky Alpacas' Alpaca Silk. Now I know I love the yarn, and the opportunity to see the yarn in person before buying, to fondle its softness and see the actual colors rather than making an educated guess seemed like a real treat. So I planned on buying yarn for this sweater, and indeed I found it, a beautiful deep rosy red with a hint of pink in it called Ruby. Unfortunately they did not have enough for my size so I was not able to come home with it. This might be good because I might have abandoned by beautiful blue mohair, which I do also love, and plunged right into yummy silk and alpaca goodness. It will happen, as they ordered the yarn for me and the store is only a short trip up the road, just north of Bard College.

But, as usually happens in a yarn shop I also fell in love with something else. And this is exactly why the queue gets longer and longer and I find myself, despite all the best intentions, so easily seduced.

It was the color that caught my eye, a soft grayed-lilac, more gray than it appears in this photo. The photo at the Fabulous Yarn website is a much truer depiction of the color (Jasmine #1213) and I am in love. Then of course I had to decide what I might make and how much to buy. So there I was flipping through magazines and pattern books.

Anneliese was looking at French Girl Knits, and I thought it would be perfect for the cardigan called Wrenna, and of course it would be lovely. So after a bit of quick calculation I picked up the yarn and continued to look around.

During the course of our visit we were talking about the Twinkle Soft Chunky yarn and how the colors didn't do anything for any of us, they were all lovely but just a little off what the three of us would wear. As an aside I am a Summer and my companions probably veer more to the Fall or Spring side of the palette, so we cover a wide choice of yarn colors.

But then, as I was waiting to check out I noticed a perfectly lovely color of the Twinkle yarn, in a color that I would call dusty rose, which in an odd turn, was actually its name. It is a soft color, one that I associate for some reason more with a Japanese color sense than with modern American colors and I adore it. They only had one skein. And it suddenly occurred to me that the Wrenna cardigan would look lovely in that yarn, and it was written for that yarn. But I was buying the lilac. As our conversation meandered on, I learned that the Blue Sky Alpaca Bulky was actually hard to reorder because of a popularity surge after appearing on the cover of the newest Vogue Knitting. And that made me think that there was perhaps something I wanted to knit from the new Vogue Knitting.

And there it was.

This sweater wasn't on my list either. But now I could see it in the soft gray-lilac. It would go so well over so many things in my closet. The color and the style were chanting "Make Me! Make Me!" and I went back to see if there was more yarn. There is barely enough, not quite enough really, I am about half a skein short, but I convinced myself to buy the extra yarn and give it a try.

I am still cautious, it might not work. And if it doesn't I can make Wrenna. Or I can find something else to make.

But it might work. I can leave the bobbles off the bottom ribbing if necessary. I don't want the sleeves quite as long as they are shown and perhaps not quite as wide. Regardless it might work just because of gauge issues. My row gauge is almost always off. I knit long tall stitches and 90 percent of the time I get fewer rows per inch than any pattern calls for. Fewer rows per inch translates to less yarn. As I said it might just work.

I finished the front of the mohair sweater last night. I want to start the sleeves. And I want to start knitting the lilac alpaca.

February 16, 2009
Light and Scrunchy

I love the Alchemy Silken Straw swatch. It is very light and very drapey, but it has a little bit of a scrunchy sproing to it. Many silk yarns knit to a fabric that is smooth and drapey and clings to the body in a heavy way, even if the fabric itself is light, much the way a silk charmeuse clings and drapes. But this knitted fabric is different. It is drapey and fluid, but I don’t think it would cling, it stands away slightly, perhaps the way a crisp cool percale sheet flows over the body but also stands away a little bit. It has a scrunchy feel, but it is also light and airy. It reminds me more of a very light silk dupioni that has been washed so it has lost some of its stiff dupioni crispness, but still retains a memory of its crisp character with more drape.

I think I will love the garments knitted with this yarn, and I am always thinking of light crisp-lacy garments, it would make a truly sumptuous light nightie, perhaps even a delicate shawl, crisp and light all at once. And yes, I am going to swatch that Shirley Paden pattern as well.

August 25, 2007