Skip to main content

That's what I call a swatch!

Near the end of sOctober madness (between pair four and pair five)I decided to swatch for Kate Davies' Kildalton Cardigan. It's two projects down the road, but I was considering buying a cable needle from Signature Needle Arts, so I wanted to see what needle size I needed for the project. Also, the sizes of the cardigan are just a tiny bit off for me. I want to knit it with almost no ease: size two is three centimetres smaller than I need, and size 4 is way bigger. So I knit a swatch, as declared by Kate Davies. 
Now we all know she can be quite prescriptive in her directions. This time I decided to follow them: A 64 stitch, 40 row swatch. I do now keep all my swatches (which I rather wish I had done form the start), one day I will do something with them, like sew them together into a blanket and this will be a great addition. 
I knit the first repeat on 3.75mm needles and my second on 4mm. I did learn a lot, especially about my row gauge, and how much I love this Millpost merino yarn for this pattern. My stitch gauge was fairly similiar in both needles sizes, but my row gauge was much larger on the 4mm, which is what I will use fot the project.

 I also learnt that I don't need a Signature Cable needle for this project, a Chiaogoo double pointed does the job just fine.

Now onwards to some baby knitting, before I can start this glorious cabled confection of a cardigan. 

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Linky Wednesday - the one with the pause

In meditation it's said that the pause between the in breath and the out breath is a gap, a space to rest. Well, I'm in that in-between space for reading, listening and knitting. This is a random photo of a highlight of my week - I filled up my lolly jar. These are just supermarket party mix. During the lockdowns, we sources a great pick-and-mix delivery service, but at some point they started sending from the UK, which is a bit silly. Rachey messaged me a new one she found, and I impulsed purchased a kilo of mixed lollies, and then she sent me a link to the biggest lolly shop in Melbourne, which also delivers sweets by the kilogram, so i think I'm sorted for the rest of the year!  In reading I've just finished  The Beckoning Lady   by Margery Allingham . It's the second last book in the Summer of Mystery, and I have to admit, having now read nine Margery Allingham books, that they are OK. I wouldn't have read them if they were not connected to this club, but on...
5 comments
Read more

Why Andrea Mowry, why? (A rant and a rather nice finished object)

As mentioned, prior to our hiking trip I suddenly, and rather randomly, decided to knit  Andrea Morwy's Traveler Shell . It's basically an open fronted rectangle in a knit purl pattern. The pattern is FOURTEEN pages long. Why is the pattern 14 pages long? Because, instead of explaining the ten row repeat and then putting the shaping on top of that (e.g. decrease while continuing to knit in pattern), she writes out the entire ten row knit purl sequence every time something changes. Additionally, most of the time she starts with even number being the right side and wrong numbers being the right side,which is just plain odd. It's confusing and it's like she wants to keep you looking at the pattern for every row, rathe than following the very intuitive stitch pattern, which I had memorised after one repeat.  The instructions for the band just say 'pick up x number of stitches'. No ratios, no acjnowledgement that different bits of the band have different ratios. Afte...
Post a Comment
Read more

Geogradiant MKAL Part 1 - that was unexpected (spoilers)

Stephen West released the first MKAL clue on Thursday night. I started knitting it without looking at spoilers. When I got up on Friday he had sent through an "alternative" clue one. I then went and had a look at the spoiler thread to try to work out what was going on. Which was that some people thought the pattern looked like a "German hate symbol". I knit on anyway, since I was half-way through. Then he took down the original clue, replacing it with a mitred square in garter stitch. The Ravelry forums and Instagram are a complete shit-show, even though Rav is being moderated. It's been a bit disheartening, having something that is usually quite light and fun weighed down with all this. I admire Stephen's quick and sensitive response to this drama. I also feel that anything can look like anything if you squint. To me this looks like a Celtic knot. I think mine is pretty, and I'll knit on through all crises. 
7 comments
Read more