We thought that we had dodged our son's cold. Actually, we did dodge it for a day. We took our usual combination of homeopathic remedies and felt great. The following day I was feeling so good that I celebrated with a coffee eclair followed by a half a bar of chocolate. This is a stupid thing to do if you're trying to avoid a cold. My husband did roughly the same thing, and we both started feeling bad about an hour after the last piece of chocolate had finished melting in our mouths.
The positive side of this is that the cold has given me a chance/excuse to do some knitting. In an effort to avoid another failed sweater I have changed my strategy. I spent my first day on the couch making these.
These are swatches with nice blue note cards attached. I had entirely too much fun filling out the cards. Organization is such a turn on. Don't you think?
I know people usually swatch for a specific project, but I think this may be where I've been going wrong. One days worth of swatching has taught me a lot about myself. The first thing that it has taught me is that I am a way looser knitter than your average bear. I knew this, but I didn't know exactly how much looser I was. For a project that calls for bulky yarn and size 9 needles, I may need to pick a worsted weight yarn and size 6 needles. Shocking, I know. Before I discovered this fact, I would automatically drop a needle and a pattern size. I (wrongly) figured that this was enough to ensure a good fit. Now that I see that in writing, it seems delusional. So the key here is that I've discovered that not only do I have to change needle sizes, but I may have to change the weight of the yarn as well. Instead of picking out a pattern and then picking out a yarn, I'm going to swatch every yarn I own until I get a fabric I like, take notes, and pick a pattern accordingly.
The other thing I learned is that yarn labels lie. Worsted is not always worsted. I can not rely on the label, or Ravelry or even a well intentioned fellow knitter. I'm going to use classifications like worsted, dk, aran, sport, fingering, and bulky as guides, not absolutes. You can't look at a yarn and tell how it's going to knit up. I've got pretty good eyes, and I can pick out two yarns that look for all the world like they're exactly the same weight, but when I knit them up on the same size needles and I get two completely different fabrics. Fiber content is a factor, but even with two "aran" wool yarns you can get massive differences in gauge depending on the spin, the crimp of the wool, your mood, whether your watching an action adventure or a romance (this has actually happened to me), the weather, the sheep's diet...you get my point.
The hours on the couch spent wiping my nose, popping Tylenol, knitting little squares and watching the first season of "Mad Men" were bliss. I've decided that "Mad Men" is the "Dallas" of this decade. There are a lot of rich white folks, some sexism, cheating, fist fights, shocking amounts of booze, and a good measure of corporate hooha, but I digress. At some point, I paused the drama and crawled up to the yarn hole to raid a bin for more swatching material.
Up until this point I had thought of these stash yarns as specific sweaters. Each yarn had been purchased with a pattern in mind. Now, things are different. Every yarn is looking for it's soulmate. There are no more arranged marriages between a yarn and a pattern.
While looking at my finished stack of swatches I had another thought. I'm going to try to knit my way from one bin to another, starting with these yarns. Why not? I like all of them. I've got enough of each yarn for a sweater, or at least a vest. It's a stash busting/sweater knitting two fer. It also means I won't have to pull my whole closet apart looking for a specific yarn. In an attempt to avoid another sweater knitastrophy, I've made myself a few rules.
1. The sweater I choose must have been knit by at least 5 people on Ravelry, so that I'm not the (sucker, Guinea pig, lab rat) person who has to spend hours sorting out pattern errata.
2. The sweater must look good on most of the people who've knit it. I've noticed that some sweaters are much more figure friendly than others. I need to knit something that looks good on everyone, that way if I flub up the size I can pass it on.
3. I'm going to error on the small side. I thought that it was, when in doubt, better to knit a larger size. Maybe that's true for some people, but most of my friends are medium to small. If I have to give a sweater away it will give me a lot more options if it isn't an XXL. Add to that, knitwear stretches out over time. It almost never gets smaller, unless your husband felts it in the washing machine. The final argument is that finishing a huge hunk of knitting only to find that it's way too big is more demoralizing than knitting a smaller bit of knitting, only to find that it's too small.
4. I must achieve gauge before beginning. This is not optional.
5. I must check for errata every time. This is also not optional
6. I must read (most) peoples' Ravelry notes before I begin. There's plenty of good info in other people's notes, especially when it comes to sizing.
7. I must read and re-read the pattern all the way through before beginning.
Following these criteria, and using my new swatch system, I've chosen to knit this. This is "Rosamund's Cardigan" by Andrea Pomerantz. It can be found in the Fall 2009 issue of "Interweave Knits".
I chose this sweater for a couple of reasons. It's a cardigan. People liked knitting it. Most people who started it finished it. It's knit from the top down, which means I can try it on as I go. It can be made to be reversible. Yeah, I know, reversible stuff is cool. The other people who have knit it had relatively few problems with the pattern, and it looks good on almost everybody. Looking at the photo in the magazine I would not have guessed that it would look good on most body types, but I swear it does. It's been in my queue for awhile, but not at the top of my list of things to knit.
The yarn was really the deciding factor. It's called "Ecolana", and it's made by Aslan Trends. It's a blend of alpaca and merino, which gives it a slight drape and soft shine. There are some white guard hairs which give it a fuzzy look. It's not unlike the yarn that this pattern calls for. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this will be "the one", but even if it's not, at least I'll be able to give it to someone who will love it.
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