And the Swatch Continues - Black Evening Blouse

We are continuing on with the growing swatch for the Black Evening Blouse. The original post can be found here. I should have included a pic of the blouse in the original post, but it didn't even occur to me until after the post  went live on the blog.

This is what the sweater looks like:

I am finding that making the swatch is helping with my tension. My tension was all over the place when I made the first, little swatch. I am used to working on heavier weight yarn.. I usually work with worsted weight yarn, so everything knits up fast. My first original swatches were small - I cast on 30 stitches on size 3US needles. The swatch was about 2.5 to 3 inches wide. 

The info that we could find on the Botany Saxatones yarn is for the 1 ounce size skeins. The 1-ounce skeins contained about 170 yards. The yarn is 100% wool. The pattern calls for 4 or 5 of the 2 ounce skeins of yarn.

The pattern can be found here.

Happy knitting!

A Big Swatch - Black Evening Blouse

I found a lace weight yarn I wanted to try, but I didn't have a pattern to use it on, until Alison sent the Black Evening Blouse pattern to me.

The yarn I wanted to use is an acyrlic/nylon blend, and not very expensive, but is so soft. I had to go buy a pair of metal needles size 1US at a local yarn store that sells the needles I like to use. The owner suggested that before putting in the work with this tiny yarn, that I knit up a large swatch and run it through the washer ten times to see how well it holds up.

I definitely don't want to do all of that knitting only to have the sweater pill on the first few washings and wearings. I really really dislike swatching. But I could see the sense in creating the large swatch. As I made peace with the idea of swatching and washing, I realized this could be the perfect opportunity to show the stitch patterns that are used in the pattern. The patterns aren't completely visible in the picture of the sweater. This first pic of the swatch shows the Hive Pattern from the pattern.

 


I have to use a lifeline (the peach colored cotton thread running through the swatch). I forgot to add it when I switched from stockinette to the pattern and ended up having to rip out about 10 rows of the hive pattern (unknit is the new term for ripping out stitches, I think). I decided that I was tired of unknitting and that a lifeline would save me time in the future. We were camping and I was so excited to be knitting by headlamp light that I wasn't paying as close of attention to the pattern as I should have been. I guess that makes me a nerd knitter.

I found that placing a stitch marker on row 1 of the pattern repeat made it easier to figure out where I am in the pattern when I pick up after setting it down for any length of time.

I will be posting more pics as I get further along in the swatch (or cowl).

Happy knitting!