Swatches and Samples

Having committed to the Argyle sweater vest, and picked out some yarns,

I promptly started in on the official swatch, displayed here for posterity. 🙂

After a quick wash and block, it came out to 19 stitches/26 rows per 4 inches. which is pretty close to the specified gauge (18/26). So the finished object might be slightly smaller than the specified measurements, but I think I’m still ok with doing the smaller of the two pattern sizes.

So I went ahead and cast on. The pattern calls for a provisional cast-on, but I’ve never really gotten the hang of that, and so am just going with my standard longtail, and will plan to pick up stitches for the bottom edge ribbing when the time comes for that.

Seeing as how it’s knit in pieces, the cast on isn’t too many stitches (working the back first), but I found that doing the setup for the argyle pattern kind of challenging. Lots and lots of ends. So for the first couple of rows I did actually wind my yarns up into little butterfly thingees, just so I could see where everything was coming from. But now that I’m a few inches in, I find that it’s easier and less of a tangle to just let everything hang loose.

Also, I had planned to knit the white lines into the pattern as I went, but during the setup it occurred to me that working them a the same time would mean another 8 strands hanging loose, and so reconciled myself to doing duplicate stitch after the fact as the pattern directs.

So I’m underway with the argyle!

Also did some spinning this past week- those pretty little superwash color blending samples-from earlier this month

are are now spun and plied- only about 13-15 yards of each color (~.25 oz) but should be fun to work up into a small project of some sort

That’s all the woolly news I’ve got for now. But I’m kind of feeling the urge to get a new warp on the floor loom. And there’s a long weekend coming up.

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!