Now Norma Knits

323. A Great Big Swatch, or: Learning to Trust My Instincts

Oy. 

Some people got me scared. One person commented on my blog recently that she's been swatching this same yarn for a long time. She's been carrying it around in her purse, and fondling it for its lovely softness.  She also said, however, "It grows.  A lot," and linked me to her Flickr photo. Gulp.

But then I looked at the photo, and to me it appears that the swatch on the right has been pinned rather severely.  I assumed that if the yarn was just simply left to dry naturally, rather than pinned into the size it stretches into when wet, it would dry true to size. 

Still, it worried me. I'm knitting a nice sweater (I hope) from this yarn, and I'm investing a lot of time in a piece that I want to turn out well.

Then I was knitting on my sweater at Gale's gathering the other day, and someone asked me what the yarn was.  I told her (it's Jo Sharp Silkroad DK tweed in the color Boheme.), and I said, "It's just gorgeous! I love it!"  She said, "You're the first person I've heard who likes it."

Gulp.  Double gulp.

I ask her why.

She tells me she knew a woman who knit a sweater from it, the sweater came out gorgeous, she stopped by the shop for her to take a photo of it, then went to the movies.  Two hours later, according to the story, she comes back and says, "I want you to see this sweater."  It had grown several inches, she tells me.  She says it was misty at the time, and the sweater had gotten damp, and that that person had tried everything, even putting it in the dryer, and never could get that sweater back to its original size.  It kept on growing so it was the size of Texas by the end of the story. The person cut the sleeves off and reknit it, and it still kept growing.  It was The Story of the Incredible Growing Sweater, with a foreword by Stephen King. What a nightmare.

Well, I tell you.  I've been having issues with my blood pressure, and if that wouldn't drive it up, I don't know what would.

I wanted to just plain chuck that sweater and that yarn out the window.  All my effort and planning and careful knitting for naught?!

But my friend Terry is a master knitter, and she recently knit a sweater from this yarn.  I saw this sweater, admired it, and touched its gorgeousness.  I said to myself, "If there was something wrong with this yarn, Terry would have never knit anything in it."  I felt confident of that. I know she DID write that the fibers had relaxed a teeny bit after two solid days of wear.  But look how incredibly gorgeous that sweater was, after two days' wear at a fiber festival, no less. 

But that was only a little bit of comfort.  Why?  Because unlike me, I know Terry is an obsessive swatcher.  I know it was possible that Terry had swatched and reswatched that yarn, and washed that swatch and put it through its paces so she could do the math to make sure her finished garment, after being washed and worn, if it were going to stretch, would not stretch all OUT of shape, but INto shape.

I looked online for reviews of this yarn and came up with nothing. I found a glowing review of its sister yarn, Jo Sharp Aran Tweed, but not the DK weight.  And I certainly did not come up with any negative blog posts -- or really anything else, for that matter -- about this yarn. 

So I worried.  And I looked at my sweater on the needles.  And I worried some more.  And I knitted a bit more, and then I worried again.  And I said, "This is stupid. There's only one way to find out."

So I took it off the needles and put the live stitches onto a piece of kitchen cotton yarn. 

I measured it fresh off the needles, dry and smoothed out on my blocking tiles, but not stretched. I love my blocking tiles, by the way.  They have flocking on the surface that has just the right amount of grab, and they are a nice solid off-white.  I got them here.

It's a bit of a challenge to get a straight measurement of a piece knitted in the round and unblocked, so it appears to be on a bit of an angle, but I came up with 23.5 inches.  This is just slightly less than I'd like this sweater to be.  So far so good, then, because there is some stretching room, but not excessive bagginess.

I measured the length, smoothed out by my hands, but unblocked and unstretched:

12 inches.

I checked the knitting gauge.

20 stitches per 4 inches

30 rows per 4 inches. 

Exactly as per the ball band.

Then I took the piece and, following the washing instructions on the ball band, I put it in warm water with a nice squirt of Eucalan lavender, as I use for all my wool and silk knits.  I let it soak for half an hour.  Then, again as per the washing instructions, I rinsed it in cooler water.  I handled it gently, as I do all my knits. I spun it dry(ish) in my washing machine, and I took it back to the blocking tiles.  I laid it out and smoothed it gently, without stretching anything, as I would with any of my el primo knitwear (It's all el primo. I have great reverence for the knits -- especially the handknits.). 

The fabric looked gorgeous even wet, and I sensed that there was little, if any change, and that there would be minimal change in the measurements, but I measured it anyway.

23.75 inches wide and

12.5 (and a fraction) long. Virtually the same as when dry...well, very minimal change, anyway, and I expected that change to be even more minimal, or nonexistent, once it dried.

I let it dry without pinning or stretching it, and I measured it when dry. Absolutely perfect.  So soft, so lovely, and just the right gauge.  I think it will be a wonderfully wearable sweater, assuming I ever finish it.  It's now back on the needles and I am happily knitting away again.

All This Loosening Up Is Making Me Tense

Well, I've gone and done it.  I've started my first "Big Girl" mittens.  What I mean by that is knitting something beyond stockinette and garter.  Colorwork.  Stranded.  Charts.

Scares the bejesus right out of me.

I'm not so big on going slow.  There is exactly one thing in life that I like to take slow.  You know what I mean.  Yes, that. Everything else:  FAST.  I type fast, I steno fast, I talk fast, I eat fast, I drive fast, I shower fast, I walk fast, I learn fast.  Well, on that last one?  Maybe not so fast anymore. 

So here is the cuff swatch cuff swatch of my Frostrosen mittens.

I have some major tension issues going on here.  I am a tight knitter and the whole idea of floats?  Weird.  In my mind, my take-no-prisoners Yankee no-nonsense way of thinking, they should be TIGHT FLOATS.  Loose floats, although they go against my grain, I'm learning are way better.  And I'm so new at knitting with the left hand that I'm slow.  And see the above paragraph.  I don't get slow.  Slow is painful.  Most of the time.  (Also see above.)  And then the pattern?  It's very good.  However, it doesn't tell me what to do with that garter band in the beginning, and yet it doesn't show in the photo/drawing of the mitten on the pattern.  Am I to understand that it gets hemmed somehow?  It just says do the six repeats of the garter at the beginning and drops it.  I can't find anywhere in the pattern that it tells me to hem it.  Am I supposed to hem it?  Help me out here. 

Anyhoo, I think this is going to end up being the swatch, because my gauge in the beginning is way too tight.  And painfully, slowly, I have finally figured out that in order to get gauge on the called-for needles, I will have to change my knitting style to LOOSIE-GOOSIE, which is nothing but SLOW and PAINFUL pour moi.  I also realized that I wanted the white (ivory, really) to pop, and therefore I figured out that the white needed to be in my right hand (what's THAT all about?!). 

I do love the color scheme and I will grudgingly admit that this kind of knitting is a RUSH.  So.  'nuff said.  I want the mittens to be really nice.  So therefore, it's a SWATCH.  I'll start over, now that I think I'm getting the hang of it.  Slow.  Painful.  And yet, a RUSH. 

See how flexible I can be? 

SPEAKING OF FLEXIBLE, The Other Rachel H. is getting a tad bit nervous.  We've all done a wonderful job on her drive for hats for Christmas presents for all the students at her school, but we have not yet come within close range of her goal.  She had 118 hats as of this morning (Sunday), and needs 300-325.  If you have hats or headbands (she says many of the kids might even prefer cool headbands) that you can spare or can whip out quickly and send to her, please consider it.  (acrylics or superwash are preferred)  If you could let her know how many you're sending so that she can keep a running count, that would also help alleviate her anxiety.  As she says, "I just don't EVER want to look in the eyes of an 8 year old and tell him/her, 'I'm sorry, there is nothing for you.'" 

The size she's looking for is child large/adult small.

Her email address is theprocrastiknitter[at]yahoo[dot]com.

I have dipped into my charity knitting pile and have diverted a few items from my Dulaan box and my local homeless shelter drive to send to Rachel instead.  She is coming down to the wire for when she needs her things, and I have time to knit replacements for my other favorite causes.  I hope to also be able to put in a headband or two before I mail the package tomorrow. 

Flexibility can be a good thing, I'm learning.

I think I'll be away from the blog and email for a few days, because of the holiday work craziness of which I have spoken previously.  It's a good thing I'm a grinch.  Grinches don't need to worry about being busy over the holidays.  Right?  Flexible, flexible, flexible.....

Weekend Exercise

Here is another hat done for the Soaring Eagles Project.  I used this hat to practice color work*, using my left hand, and also to practice knitting Continental. 

*yes, I added a comma, because those are two separate things -- I need practice in both color work generally and in using my left hand for the color work

I found that I can knit Continental, and I can maintain gauge.  I can see how it could be faster to knit that way, but I need practice.  After a while, I got back to throwing, and I can still knit a lot faster that way.  I'm not sure I will ever be completely comfortable with that left hand -- I am very right-hand dominant.  My keyboarding, one would think, would help with the ambidexterity, and that may prove to be true in the end -- with practice.  I also found that I can manage one strand in the left hand and one in the right for color work, and I can definitely see the value in doing so.  I will keep on practicing. 

This hat will fit better than the first one I sent to the project.  Note to self and to anyone who is reading:  Ann Budd's hat patterns are HUGE.   They must have been written in the era of Big Hair, so as not to squish down one's 'do, or something. 

This one is made of Mission Falls 1824 Wool.  The pattern is a variation on Susan's Amber hat pattern.  The colorwork design is different than Susan's. *cough* (adopt Peewee Herman's voice:  I meant to do that.)

And when it came to the crown, I decided to do a spiral-decreased top and add a pompom.   I'm especially fond of the raised ridge effect above and below the colorwork.