Tuesday, September 8

Swatching.

I spent part of my weekend combining patterns with yarn and doing a few swatches for the things I want to start soon.


swatchs 1


The green is Cascade Sierra, the gray is Plymouth Encore, and the red is Rowan Summer Tweed. The first two are for vests and the Summer Tweed is for a Liesl cardigan. I am constantly pushing long sleeves up at work to keep them out of the way (and out of chemicals/media/burners) so I thought I'd try combos of warm vests with short sleeves to stay warm this winter with less hassle.

The swatches have already been washed and blocked. I know many people don't swatch at all, much less wash and block them, but my scientific brain can not comprehend how to make a garment that fits without knowing how the yarn is going to act. I am a little disappointed to see that my stitches still look uneven in the Sierra after blocking. This is actually my second time attempting to use this yarn and I just can't get it to look smooth. Is it the cotton content? Frustrating.

These swatches:


swatchs 2


are homework for a seaming class I am taking at Stitches Midwest next weekend. I am really looking forward to this class; my seaming is atrocious and no matter how many times I read instructions on how to do mattress stitch I just don't get it.

Judging by the swatches, we are going to learn to seam many different types of stitches and edges. Maybe after this I will not shy away from knitting a sweater in pieces instead of top-down all at once. My bulky, heavy, too hot on my lap Sweater of Doom has made me question that method, as convenient as it sounds.

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