5th on 5

I know you’re all waiting with bated breath to find out how my swatching dilemma turned out.  Bonny, thanks for suggesting I try a different needle material.  That got me unstuck.  I made a 5th swatch on a US 5 METAL needle (my first four swatches were on wood) and I did get slightly different results: 

Stitches over 4”

	US 4	US 5	US 6	US 7
wood	19.25	*18.5	19	18
metal		19

*troublesome outlier!

I decided to do a DIFFERENT kind of math to see where that would get me.  If the recommended gauge of 5 st/in will get me the size I want (38), then what size does my actual gauge of 4.75 st/in get me?  Oh cross-multiplication, I love you so: it gets me a size 36.1.  The pattern includes a size 36, so I will knit that.  At my gauge, I should get a size 38 sweater.  (If I’m horribly wrong about this, please correct me now, before I knit the whole sweater.)

Now the question is: should I knit with a US 5 metal needle, or a US 6 wood needle?  Here are those two swatches: Note that there isn’t much yarn left over from what was originally a hefty 200-yard skein. 

I think I’ll use the US 6 wood needle, as it’ll be easier on my hands.

Now, I just need to wind the other skeins and prepare to cast on.  Hopefully this will be a great project to sink into over Thanksgiving break.

You don’t know how close I came to just starting another sock last night instead of knitting yet another swatch…  Socks are my comfort knitting!

Sunday Swatches

I’ve been swatching for the Vodka Gimlet sweater.I knit both of these during an incredibly dull school board hearing a couple of weeks ago. It was a hearing for a proposal to build a new middle school.  Only my knitting stopped me from going to the microphone during Q&A time and asking if any of the 6 or so speakers actually liked their jobs… because their presentations were so lackluster and passionless that I couldn’t imagine they had any interest at all in their various professions.  It was bad.  But… the swatches are pretty, yes?

The yarn is Plucky Knitter Primo Worsted, a 4-ply with tight twist that is 75% merino, 20% cashmere, and 5% nylon.  The colorway is a luscious neutral called “Barely Birch.”  The hand is wonderful… and look at the stitch definition up close, won’t you?One of the swatches is knit with a US7/4.5 mm (the one with the orange loop) and one is with a US6/4.0 mm.  I’m supposed to get 5 st and 7 rows per inch – but I’m being a good knitter and measuring over 4 inches, so I’m looking for 20 stitches and 28 rows.  After washing my swatches:

• On a US7, I get 18 stitches and 28 rows in 4”
• On a US6, I get 19 stitches and 28 rows in 4”

So yes, I’m working on a third swatch on a US5 (3.75mm) and we’ll see if I get gauge.  I might have to go to a US4 (3.5mm).  Which wouldn’t surprise me… I’m a loose knitter.  I probably should have started swatching on a smaller needle.  But who minds swatching with yarn as yummy as Plucky’s?

In other knitting news, I’m chugging through S1’s orange Asymmetrical Cables socks – I’m on the heel flap for sock #2 and I hope to finish them this week.  I’m also knitting another office sock you haven’t seen, so I will try to photograph that this week to share.

Hope you’re enjoying the extra hour of knitting time today!