Gauging it

Well, I made my decisions yesterday about The Sweater. Here it is. It's ambitious in a way....there is a LOT of counting and pattern following for this sweater. But I like the small cable panels and subtle patterning on the sides and sleeves. It's casual, but he can still wear it work with Docker's. I chose a gray tweedy yarn in a very soft, light blend. It should show the stitches well even with the tweeding, but yet be a bit forgiving perhaps on seaming, etc. because of the tweedy variations. The fiber content was the biggest reason I went with this yarn...40% silk, 30% cotton, 20% wool and 10% rayon. It has a light feel, not heavy at all, and is a dream to knit with. It is "Silky Tweed" by Elsebeth Lavold . There was a comparable yarn in wool/silk, but the wool content was so high I figured it would be way too toasty. And it was soft, but not nearly as soft as this stuff.

Here is my first ever serious gauge swatch. I've never done gauge swatches for my socks or for the backpack I made last summer. But for a sweater, I'm not taking any chances. This is about 10 inches long, 5 inches wide. Stockinette on the bottom and moss stitch on the top. Gauge was given for both as well as the cable panel, which I may also do a gauge swatch for...it would be good to at least practice the cable panel before I get to the real deals. This was washed in cool soapy water last night and left to dry overnight and unfortunately, I didn't meet the gauge, so I will be knitting this again on smaller needles. (Good thing I have plenty of extra balls of yarn...actually, about half the yarn for the sweater is on order. She was able to order more in this dye lot. So since she had to order whole extra bag for me, I took the whole bag even though I may not need all of it.)

For you non-knitter's, my gauge is how many stitches/rows I am knitting per inch. Each knitter's gauge is a little different, even with the exact same yarn and needles, based on how we knit, how we hold the yarn, what needles we use, etc. Each pattern is written based on the creator's gauge. If I don't match that gauge, my sweater can end up too small or too big, with potentially disasterous results, so that is what the gauge swatch is all about. I usually knit pretty tight, so I went up a needle size for my first swatch, but it looks like I will need to try again with smaller needles. This was knit with 7's. Even after I get gauge, the actual sweater can still come out a tad bit too large or too small, so luckily this is a forgivingly fitted sweater. I hope.

I tried at first with pricey new Addi Turbos, but they were way too slick for this yarn. I didn't feel I had any control. So after a trip to Jo-Ann's, I tried with bamboo circulars (I'll knit on circulars, using them as straights) and it went much easier. I went ahead and picked up needles in several nearby sizes so I won't have to go back and get more today, at least. I have the 6's on-hand.

Off to swatch again....