Swatching

As mentioned in an earlier post, I hate swatching. It feels like a waste of time/yarn. Yes, I know that in practice, swatching saves me both time and yarn, but when I finally settle on a project, I want to jump into it! To knit! It's kind of a problem. I mean, for my shawl, I didn't really need to worry about it, because there were no rules beyond follow the pattern.

My newest started project is not actually started yet, because I am actually knitting a gauge swatch. It's a fair-isle pattern, which is a new thing for me. Knitting a fair-isle pattern, at any rate. I've been working on some fair-isle for a while now, but I'm making the darn things up as I go. This one, though, will be a Christmas present, and I really want them to turn out well. They're the Abigail hand-warmers from Vintage Modern Knits. I'm knitting them up in Isager 2, which is 50% alpaca and 50% wool at 50g/250m. The pattern calls for The Fibre Company Canopy Fingering, which is 50% baby alpaca, 30% merino, and 20% bamboo, at 50g/183m/200yd. I was always planning on knitting a swatch for this one, but when I remembered that meters and yards are different, it became necessary. The yarns still fall in the same weight category, but the Isager is smaller (.2g/m versus .27g/m~.3g/m) and I want to be sure I get it right. (Also oh my goodness I love Isager yarns, and especially the alpaca/wool blend. I would knit with it all day long!)

Also, in writing this, I just realized that I am most definitely not using the section of pattern recommended for swatching. I'm knitting gauge using the more complex cuff pattern (it only has one repeat!), when I could be using the hand pattern, which is a 14 st repeat. Ah well. I doubt it will really mess things up. I hope. This gauge thing is complicated!

I'm also theoretically trying out new needles for this project - they're square dpns - Kollage Yarns Square Needles. Only I've just realized that I need to call my LYS, because the package says US 1/2.25 mm, but the needles say US 1 1/2 /2.50mm. But the website says most knitters need to go up a size to get gauge, so maybe I'll be okay. And I haven't gotten to the part where I get to use them yet, anyway. That will come once I actually get around to knitting the pattern!

Slippers!

As a good Minnesotan, I have an obsession with woolen footwear. Nothing is as cozy as a pair of wool socks, unless it's wool socks inside wool slippers. Which leads me to my newest complete project. (Or almost complete, at any rate). This is also, coincidentally, my first felting project - or will be, when I get around to felting them! As I'm sure you can tell, they don't exactly fit at the moment. I'm worried that felting them will shrink them beyond wearability for me, since my feet are kind of big. Not that big - 9.5 womens - but big enough that shrinkage might be a problem. Which would be a huge bummer, since I am pretty excited about these. I'll just have to find a friend with small feet!

These are knitted in Ella Rae Sandart (I think that's the name of it at any rate) but I can't remember/find the label for the color-way. Although this one is mostly orange and pink in the top, the bottom is almost completely black, which you can see in the picture to the left. It has one lonely stripe of what is almost maroon near the heel. The other slipper has a super pretty bottom - gold and purple and green (which sound terrible listed like that!). The body of that slipper, seen below, is pretty solidly green, with some deep purple and charcoal grey striping across the top of the foot. I was pretty surprised by the way it worked up - I haven't really worked with multicolored yarn before, so I was always fascinated by what color was coming up the center of my ball! I'm now very curious about how the yarn was dyed (or spun). As you can tell from the slippers, which are knit from one ball and the tiniest bit of a second, the ball was split more or less into uneven thirds. One third is almost completely charcoal grey. Another third is maroon and golden, which heads into purple. From the purple, it heads into green and grey-purple. I guess I expected the color to vary more rapidly, or something. I wasn't expecting that crazy yarn that makes psuedo-fair-isle or anything, but it was a surprise. Which is okay! Because I love the colors in this colorway, and of these slippers.

Even though they don't really match, I'm pleased with how they turned out so far. I feel way more confident about short rows, which I'd only done once before, and the instructions in this book were So. Much. Better. (Even if I misread the instructions and had to pull out somewhere between 6 and 8 rows - a Very Painful Process). And next time, I might actually try knitting a swatch. I find swatch knitting to be incredibly obnoxious despite knowing how important it is. But knitting a swatch would have been good for making sure that the slippers would fit once felted. Oh well. Live and learn. I'm sure I have cousins or friends with small enough feet. Though who knows? I hear felting is magic, so maybe they'll felt and only shrink width-wise, which is all I'd need.

The pattern is from Knitting 24/7 - I think it's called hobbit slippers, but as I can't find the book at the moment, I'm not sure. I knit on 7's, both dpn and circular.