Daily Archives: October 19, 2009

Swatch #2 With Two-Ply Handspun

One and a half repeats, half-width swatch of the pattern for my eldest goddaughter’s Yule gift, a convertible wrap/scarf/capelet/hood, knit with the two-ply sample of my own handspun yarn:

To my surprise, the difference in softness isn’t as drastic as I thought it would be. Yes, the two-ply is softer than the Navajo-plied yarn I used on the first swatch, but it’s not the absolute deal-breaker I expected. It will be a factor, though. What is astonishing is the difference in stitch definition. The n-ply is so much more crisp and even. The two-ply has the thick-thin yarn thing going on; it isn’t as evenly plied as the n-ply, and so the pattern sort of bubbles in places. Now, theoretically this is the sort of thing that could adjusted with blocking, which we will try next.

Also, the swatch knitted with the Navajo-plied yarn has more body and integrity. The sample knit with the two-ply drapes a bit more. This is what produces the degree of stitch definition, I suppose. I’m not too worried about the wrap being too stuff, as it’s going to be bigger and the weight will make it flow more than the small swatch does.

(I see that despite my notes, I did twice the amount of garter stitch on the n-plied sample than the two-ply. That’s why the bar of non-lace stitch in the middle looks different.)

A photo of both. The two-ply swatch is on the left, the Navajo-plied swatch is on the right:

If I had to decide between the two samples right now, I think I’d go with the Navajo-ply, because the two-ply swatch just looks… messy. But I’ll wash and block the swatches properly, and we’ll see what happens to the pattern once they’re dry.

And in other mostly unconnected news, I messed with red and purple dye today. Displeased with the violet dye alone, I mixed it with a bit of brown and got an old red wine colour (not the dried blood colour the picture suggests), and blended my own purple from equal parts of red and blue (more of a grape-popsicle colour than what’s here). The red on its own was a control experiment, as I hadn’t tried it yet. The fibre was natural BFL scraps.

(I’m hating my photos lately.)

Weekend Roundup

My fibre arts stuff is detailed elsewhere, so this will be brief:

Saturday:
AM: Awful cello lesson. It’s been a while since I almost broke into tears. I’m at the I-can’t-do-anything-and-I-don’t-understand-why point.

PM: Shopping: Errand-running after the boy’s nap, mostly for Hallowe’en related itemry. We get a turtleneck and tights for the boy’s Superman costume (pattern plus fabric = more expensive). No rainboots, but we do buy him a new pair of winter boots he needs (size 11, yikes).

Night: I finish my green lace scarf after much hair-tearing, rending of clothes, and gnashing of teeth.

Sunday:
AM: Another shopping run. I become very annoyed when the kitchen scale on half-price at Zellers is nowhere to be found in the store. We do the groceries, then head out to the farm stand on the south shore to pick up our pumpkins and a whack of veggies. The farmer slips the boy some Hallowe’en candy, and a pair of the best apples ever to HRH and I. On the way home we periodically exclaim anew at how awesome these apples were. Seriously; best apples ever.

PM: I knit up the first swatch for my goddaughter’s wrap. Then I have to flee for my monthly group cello class, where I have fun but yet again can’t play to save my life It’s not even the playing that goes wrong; it’s intonation, timing, trying to figure out where I am note-wise and how to fix it so I can blend, and I can’t. I know this must mean my brain is working stuff out, but while it’s happening I can’t stand a single sound I make, and so I’m not terribly inclined to make sound at all.