My whole blogging schedule is so off it’s ridiculous. Usually I blog pretty early in the morning – depending on how big the post is and if I need to wait for some light to hit the apartment for pictures – and then it’s done and I do whatever else I’m doing for the day. But I’m in the middle of a big work project with an ever impending deadline and I’m trying to work in the morning BEFORE I blog. Today I worked in the morning (lots of tedious reading) and then I ran (WHOO HOO! I’m still intending my intentions) and then stuff happened and then I worked some more and NOW I’m blogging. I have so much to talk about and like no time at all. I’m not sure if there will be a post at all tomorrow – I’m lunching with the ladies in the big city and then, if I can stand it, I’ve got to squeeze in some work. I will try my best for Thursday.
Okay – on with things.
DUDES. Everyone and their 8 yr old brother knows: YOU SMELT IT, YOU DEALT IT. All I have to say is that I was out and about in my lovely little swampland town yesterday and I didn’t smell a freaking thing. (Besides, when we do smell stuff, we usually blame it on Lyndhurst.) Ahem.
So I’ve been swatching. Lots and lots of swatching. And I love my Beaverslide yarn so much after all this swatching I bought two more sweaters worth. No kidding. I am LOVING this yarn. Did you all get your colorcards? DO IT. Now. Anyway, I started swatching on Friday on US 8 needles, which is what the Central Park Hoodie calls for – by the way, there’s a KAL if anyone’s interested in joining. I made a beautiful swatch and measured it carefully, then SOAKed it, and laid it out to dry. This yarn is really really interesting. If you’re going to knit with it, make sure you swatch and wash your swatch the way you intend to wash your knitted item. First off, it blooms really nicely. My unblocked swatch was 19.5 stitches per 4″ and after drying it was 18 stitches to the 4″. BUT, it shrinks up in row gauge! My unblocked swatch was 26 rows per 4″ and that squished down to 29 rows per 4″. Huh. Interesting right? The pattern calls for 17 stitches and 24 rows per 4″, so I thought, let me swatch on 9s, see what I get. I got my US9 Addis out of their package sleeve in my needle drawer and swatched again. For my swatches, I cast on 36 stitches, knit four rows of garter stitch, switch to stockinette with 3 stitch garter borders until it seems about square then finish off with four rows garter. I don’t pin out my swatches when they’re blocking, just let them dry.
I enjoyed swatching with the 9s just as much as I liked the 8s and I’m thoroughly LOVING the yarn. I cast off and started measuring out the swatch. WHAT? It’s almost EXACTLY the same as the gauge on the 8s and worse yet – the row gauge is even SHORTER. This time I measured the dimensions of the swatch before I washed it. 71/4″ x 71/4″. After blocking the dimensions became 71/2″ x 63/4″. Shrinkage. I was totally perplexed by this yarn and actually called Margene to ask her about it – since she’s the one that turned me onto the yarn in the first place. She said she knew about the blooming, but not the shrinkage. (I love that this yarn expands and contracts at the same time!)
Here’s where the story becomes either extremely funny, or awfully embarrassing. Depends on if you’re Ann or Me. The next night, Sunday night, I went back to the needle drawer and took out my OTHER size 9 needle. I had a quick project I wanted to knit up (I’ll talk about it later this week) and I needed two circulars for it. I went back to the couch, where I knit the swatch the night before, and looked for my other size 9 needle. I couldn’t find it anywhere. I found a few needles that seemed like they could be 9s, but I check with my needle gauge and they’re 8s. Where the hell is the other 9?!? I ripped the couch apart. Blamed G (who threw up his hands and said he knew better than to EVER touch my knitting stuff) and got thisclose to throwing stuff because I couldn’t find this freaking needle.
THEN I figured it out. You know where I’m going don’t you? A few months (weeks? who knows the last time I tried to clean my disgusting house) ago I put away all my needles laying around. At Rhinebeck, I had picked up a handy new needle gauge to go along with the other two I have. The new one was special though!
It was made SPECIFICALLY by Skacel – the people who make Addi needles and since I pretty much knit exclusively with Addis – I figured it would be THE needle gauge to have. (It’s the one on the top right in the picture.) One problem – this needle gauge STICKS even when the needle is the RIGHT size. I figured out that all those weeks? months? ago when I was trying to put my needles away I must have mistaken an 8 for a 9 because I had a bit of trouble getting it through the 8 hole. Which makes perfect sense because I was short a size 9 Addi package and I keep all my packages.
Am I making ANY SENSE? I’ll spell it out for you. I KNIT TWO SWATCHES ON THE SAME DAMN NEEDLE SIZE! Laugh your asses off. I deserve it.
We won’t talk about the fact that I have no less than 5 size 8 circulars because the real problem is that I only have ONE size 9 circular. I couldn’t do my little project. But I could swatch again.
The good news out of all of this? Besides the irony of the fact that I never swatch and now I’ve made three – swatch #3 on size 9 needles got me stitch gauge. Which is much more important to me than row gauge because I can crunch the numbers pretty easily for that. Also, I can probably block out at least one more row. I think I still ended up with 29 rows per 4″. I have to count again. Furthermore, look how pretty the swatches are:
The fact that I can’t wait to cast on for the actual sweater after three swatches is a testament to this yarn. I’m planning on doing the back and fronts together, so I have to read over the pattern a bit before I actually do cast on, but look for it soon.
(See! I managed to write an entry that lives up to it’s title – long and boring. Just like Dickens. Although it’d be nice to get paid by the post. )
Maybe you were upwind… I’m a bad girl tha doesn’t swatch as much as she should, I’m a crazy free style knitter!
I love the color you have chosen. I promise that I did not laugh at your swatch and needle misadventure. I fear laughing at such a situation might invite misfortune upon one’s own knitting.
OK, I’ve been lurking for long enough. This post was neither long nor boring! Thanks for introducing the Beaverslide – I think I saw it mentioned in the Ariann KAL, but didn’t follow up – and the Central Park Hoodie (how did I miss that issue?). I had to laugh at your needle story: I have at least 4 needle sizing devices and find that they vary wildly!!
Thanks for the info. I have a stash of Beaverslide waiting to be used – I never swatch, but think I had better this time.
ooh color cards! i was so thinking of knitting the front and backs together… so happy you’re finally casting on!!
woohoo! I love that color — which one is it? That’s the 90/10 blend, right? The beaverslide yarn is absolutely fantastic, I agree!
Can’t wait to see your central park hoodie progress — it’s another pattern that I keep seeing completed out there and everyone’s versions look better than the one in the magazine! 🙂
[promise I didn’t laugh at the swatch issue, maybe just giggle a little. 🙂 ]
Perhaps I shouldn’t admit it, but I smelled it! I was in my office wondering if I should call office services when my mom called–from Maryland–to tell me she was watching CNN and was concerned. None of my coworkers said they could smell it, but I often have a sensitive sense of smell.
Those swatches, all three of them, are *gorgeous* *gorgeous* *gorgeous*. Some of that yarn is soooo mine after Stitches.
And don’t feel too badly about the needle thing, it’s definitely something I could have done!
Oh, the Beaverslide does wash up very nice! Thanks for the Dickens link. Very interesting.
That is lovely yarn!! Nice color! Oh..and..at least you know which swatch goes with which needle. Um..I have 3 swatches for a sweater…have absolutely no idea what needles went as I lost their tags…
Oooh, the swatches are so pretty. I love how there are little tweedy bits in there. Argh, that yarn is SO tempting!
Oh, and the needle mixup? I do that ALL. THE. TIME. Seriously.
Lovely Beaverslide. Is that the Fisherman weight? I have some in Elderberry waiting to be something. I’m making the CPH right now, too, but with Cestari in Blackberry. See you over at the KAL!
I have Beaverslide color cards from ages ago when I briefly considered using it for St. Brigid. Your swatches are GORGEOUS!
“Oh, and the needle mixup? I do that ALL. THE. TIME. Seriously.” – Yeah, me too.
i first heard about this yarn…hmmm about 3 years ago and have a set of colour cards in my little colour card collection which i ordered all that time ago. i have been so close to ordering some beaverslide so many times i can’t even count them….now you are just reigniting the desire to get some of this yarn even though i have NOTHING in mind to knit with it.
How can a woman like me (who almost knit a sock with three dpns in one size, the fourth in another) just a problem like yours. It is still bugging me that if a person’s dpns and circulars, for instance, are from two different mfrs, there’s no guarantee when you do a sweater that your sleeves and body are going to be in exactly the same gauge.
That’s why I don’t bother swatching.
Which may be why my sweaters rarely fit.
Maybe I should switch to cross stitch.
(Pretty swatches you have there.)
This is definitely not one your longer posts. You’re like a good book, it goes fast 😉 Love the color you chose too. At least you swatched. good luck with the aromatics up there! Makes me think of my childhood when we went to AC from Philly-hitting Egg Harbor-you know, everyone in the car looks at each other & grins?
The color is fabu…I’m ready to order more! Have fun in the city!
That is TOO Funny!!! Living in a fiber house though, I can absolutely see that happening here…haha!
The color is so pretty! Have fun!
HA! Too funny. Get organized!!! Addi sells a needle case for their circs, too. I bought one and put labels on each sleeve. Astrid’s Dutch Obsessions sells it in the UK. She ships quickly and is super great to work with. She also has some KILLER prices on sock yarns!! But I digress…
I also have that Addi gauge thingie from Rhinebeck! I got it mostly for the 0-3 size needles as they’re not the same as US sizes.
Those swatches DO look beautiful!
I was on those color cards like white on (white) rice the first time you posted that yarn. Gorgeous! Seems like Peace Fleece with the beautiful bloom and rich color, but less twiggy.
I an entire back to a dress for Bean on 4s that had been put in a 6 package. I’ve also knit a sweater using one 6 and one 5. At the point that I realized my mistake, I decided that, since the measurements of the sweater were fine, I’d just finish the damn thing using that needle configuration rather than frogging 3/4 of the sweater.
The yarn looks luscious!
That yarn looks luscious. I love the color.
I am one that does the same thing with her needles. I have mixed them up and it can be very frustrating. Plus every company has a different idea what a 8 or 9 is.
Glad that you figured it out and got the gauge you needed.
So been there. Not stupid. Then I would have to feel stupid. Nuh-uh.
The yarn is beautiful, yeah, what color?
Love the swatches, love the story, love the yarn, love the project! There are so many great CP Hoodies being knit that I’m starting to feel the itch to knit one for myself. Hmmm, maybe I’ll go order those color cards…
Your blogging schedule being off is throwing me off. 😉 Unless I have something I absolutely MUST post about, I generally read other blogs for a bit first. And yours usually has a brand new post in the morning to keep me occupied. But lately, no posts in the morning! I hope you realize you’re forcing me to quit procrastinating and write my own blog posts. 😉
On the good side, the swatches are very pretty and could be the beginning of a patchwork swatch blanket.
I’m glad you got things figured out and that the 9 is going to work. I’ve heard fabulous things from Margene about the yarn, but I’ve never tried ti (or even seen it for that matter). Maybe I’ll have to look into it for the future.
Yarn porn! Quit with the alluring swatch action!
I used to get paid by the word (medical transcription) and I LOVE longwinded people. 😉 No, I’m not implying anything. How could you think that? You’re never boring.
hi cara. i’m delurking to comment on that gorgeous photo up top. i read your blog all the time and always admire your beautiful work but this one really stuck out. the colors, lighting, and the lace work are just so perfect. you really captured it so well.
funny story about the needles. also, thanks for the info on the yarn. i’m adding it to my list of yarns to try.
yay on the run!
and my goodness, on the swatches 🙂 I’m such a bad knitter, I hate swatches, but I *must* swatch for the next sweater, as it’s for the DH, and I’m even more determined that it fits perfectly since he rarely asks for anything knitted!
I love Beaverslide. I hope you aren’t going to cause a storage at Beaverslide.
Cara, please post to the masses which weight yarn you’re swatching for the CPH…
Danke!
ROFLMAO.. I have one of those little tiny square needle gauges too, and I think I’m going to pitch it… why, you ask? I also mis-measured my needles with it.. (thus the hilarious laughter)AND I’ve done the exact same thing more than once, (sad to admit, yet true!)
thanks for the belly-laugh at myself, and with you tonight. I guess we’re all just birds-of-a-feather.
Cara, thanks for the info re: Beaverslide. I’ve never tried this yarn so I’m very intrigued! Are you using the 100% wool or the 90/10% mohair? Love the color you chose. I really want a CPH, too.
I love your swatch story — and they ARE beautiful — great color! I just finished CPH for my daughter. I think you won’t have to worry too much about row gauge — most of the instructions are to knit for “x” number of inches. I used a much lighter gauge and well, it worked out. You can see it here.
We were visiting NYC when the “smell” occurred. We were all over Manhattan but didn’t smell a thing. When we saw the news coverage we were shocked since we were right there and smelled nothing. The best part…. the mayor’s press conference. Too funny.
Those swatches are gorgeous! I bet Am Kamin would look great in that yarn, too, though. Just sayin’ . . . 🙂