Home » Discussion Forums » Blog Post Discussion » Swatch City
| Swatch City [message #50292] |
Tue, 12 June 2012 21:36  |
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 Black Bear
Messages: 3239
Registered: September 2008
Location: Indianapolis, IN USA |
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Swatch City
"The time is always right to do what's right."--MLK Jr.
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| Re: Swatch City [message #50303 is a reply to message #50292 ] |
Wed, 13 June 2012 01:05  |
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Diane in MN
Messages: 2756
Registered: October 2008
Location: Twin Cities, MN, USA |
Senior Member |
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When your so-called friends are busy trying to drag you onto the knitting wagon there is an awful lot they don’t tell you.
Sometimes they don't tell you things in a class, either. I've been reading knitting books more closely since relapsing last year, and saw somewhere that gauge can be affected not only by what needles are made of, but can change if those needles are made by different manufacturers, and sometimes the same yarn on the same needles can even work up differently in a different color. Oh my--who knew? But what it seems to boil down to is, make your gauge swatch on the same needles you will use to make the project.
I like it. I like knowing where you are with something that isn’t stretchy. And I got (stitch) gauge dead on first time.
Sounds like you've got a winner, then.  I've never worked with this yarn (I'm making summer sweaters, but using cotton/wool or cotton/linen blends), but my LYS carries it and it's always looked lovely to me. I'll bet it feels lovely in the hand too, with silk in it. Good choice!
"The point of books is to have way too many but to always feel you never have enough . . . " Louise Erdrich
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| Re: Swatch City [message #50305 is a reply to message #50292 ] |
Wed, 13 June 2012 02:51 |
EMoon
Messages: 669
Registered: March 2009 |
Senior Member |
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I've been doing the socks without a pattern other than my feet. So far none of them are the same, but neither are my feet, so that's OK. I do have a sort of self-made pattern now (60 stitch cast-on with size 5 US, 5 inches of 2x2 ribbing, then decrease four stitches to 56, stockinette for an inch and a half, then the heel flap 2 1/2 to 2 3/4, decrease through the gusset to 52 stitches. If you deduce from this a fat leg, swollen ankle and narrow foot, you're on the right track.)
Best of all, most of the sock is always hidden from view--under jeans at the top, inside the shoe below. So mistakes and clunky fixes thereof aren't on public view. Each pair is marginally better (less peculiar-looking) than the pair before, though each sock has at least one very obvious error in it, and they all feel better on than any commercial sock I've worn for years and years. Soft, cushy, not digging into my leg. I have to keep making them until I've got enough to never wear tight uncomfortable commercial socks again (and that will involve making some in Superwash wool, the other swatch I'm working on because I know that worsted-weight yarn from a different manufacturer is bound to work up in a different gauge.)
Actually finishing things and using up yarn sets off the "time to buy yarn" alarm, despite the alarming amount of yarn I have here already. (Yes, but the Noro was a mistake, wasn't it? You bought it because it was on sale and you love the color, but you really didn't know what to do with it and you still don't...)
E
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| Re: Swatch City [message #50307 is a reply to message #50305 ] |
Wed, 13 June 2012 09:08 |
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blondviolinist
Messages: 1076
Registered: October 2008
Location: Midwestern United States |
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| EMoon wrote on Wed, 13 June 2012 02:51 |
and they all feel better on than any commercial sock I've worn for years and years. Soft, cushy, not digging into my leg. I have to keep making them until I've got enough to never wear tight uncomfortable commercial socks again
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This is exactly why I became an obsessive sock knitter. When I made my first pair, I couldn't believe how much more comfortable they were than anything I'd bought at the store. And warm! The winters get pretty cold where I live now, and it's wonderful to have *tall* socks to keep the wind from going up the legs of my jeans. Also, wool stays warm when wet, so even if snow gets in my shoes, my feet stay toasty.
| Robin wrote |
When your so-called friends are busy trying to drag you onto the knitting wagon there is an awful lot they don’t tell you. The one unexpected break I got here is that—perhaps because it hadn’t been a swatch for very long—crimping was minimal. I rolled it up loosely around the original soft ball and it was knittable by the next day.
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*looks guilty* Well, yeah, but that's partly because some things are better learned in context, right? If everyone had to read a thousand page treatise before they started to knit, no one would ever knit! I'm glad the swatch yarn relaxed for you... mine usually does, too, if I rip it out soon enough after I knit it.
"Purity of heart is to will one thing." Kirkegaard
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| Re: Swatch City [message #50308 is a reply to message #50292 ] |
Wed, 13 June 2012 10:55 |
Katsheare
Messages: 147
Registered: December 2011
Location: Berks., England |
Senior Member |
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| Quote: |
The First Cardi swatches, on 14” needles, do not fit in my small going-bell-ringing knapsack. They stick out the top, causing unseemly hilarity among the male members of the assembled. Anthea, not missing a beat, said, What you need is a new bag. —Why . . . of course. Why hadn’t I thought of that?
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I attended my first ringing practice Monday (can't have lessons myself until July, mumble grumble scheduling and holidays fracking frell) and I realized that the changes are a lot like following a cable pattern in knitting. This made me really happy, because I thought 'Maybe I can wrap my brain around this', and I mentioned it (the cables analogy) to the guy who will be teaching me. He agreed and told me about a [male] friend of his who had knitted a sweater using charts from some method (can't remember which...) as his cabling chart. Plus my soon-to-be teacher is a knitter himself. All I'm saying is: I'll bet one of your guys is a closet knitter. Get him out of the closet and on your side.
That said, there's nothing wrong with multiple knitting bags. And nothing clever about mocking people who habitually carry pointy sticks.
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| Re: Swatch City [message #50310 is a reply to message #50292 ] |
Wed, 13 June 2012 13:40 |
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equus_peduus
Messages: 437
Registered: September 2009
Location: France |
Senior Member |
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some sensible wool manufacturers name the yarn, and merely have numbers for subsidiary colours
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I *HATE* this. HATE. I want the colors to be named something, even if it's something stupid. The words mean something (even if it doesn't make a lot of sense) and I can pretty easily tell that "marine" is a bluish color, or "lily pad" is the green-blue-brown one... but is "567204039" the yellow, or is that "4923572"? And when entering the yarn into Ravelry... some of the labels don't make it clear which number is lot number and which number is color number, and some people enter it under the color's number and others under its name (cos some yarn has BOTH) so figuring out where to put it, or how to find projects others have done with the same color I have... argh. Names make more sense to me.
You are, however, entitled to your opinion too, which is apparently not the same as mine
[Updated on: Wed, 13 June 2012 13:40]
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| Re: Swatch City [message #50313 is a reply to message #50303 ] |
Thu, 14 June 2012 00:09 |
Joseph-ine
Messages: 53
Registered: April 2011 |
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[quote title=Diane in MN wrote on Wed, 13 June 2012 15:05
Sometimes they don't tell you things in a class, either. I've been reading knitting books more closely since relapsing last year, and saw somewhere that gauge can be affected not only by what needles are made of, but can change if those needles are made by different manufacturers, and sometimes the same yarn on the same needles can even work up differently in a different color. Oh my--who knew? But what it seems to boil down to is, make your gauge swatch on the same needles you will use to make the project.
[/quote]
I can attest to this, having made a multicolour blanket - both my very dark purple squares were much larger thatn all my other lighter coloured squares. Although I attributed it to that the fact it being darker, I must have unconsciously worked more loosely because I couldn't see it as well.
I once discussed clothing sizes with a knowing woman, who said that in general white clothing is just a little bit looser than the same style, cut and design of the black version, because dark colour dyes cause more shrinkage. Which is the complete opposite to the issues I had but I suppose, either way, colour is an issue with gauge.
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