Choosing the Yarn

Suitability, Availability and Affordability - the key criteria for choosing the right yarn for this project and for our respective machines.  As mentioned previously, the pattern is written for Honiburd Cotton Rainbow at T9, giving a tension of 27 sts and 36 rows = 10 cm/4".  This is pretty close to the lower limit of my mid-gauge, recommended at T1.  I have found in the past that being that close to the limits of what the mid-gauge can do means that sometimes the results are not the best.  As well, a quick internet search didn't turn up any Canadian suppliers.  Another knitter in our group recommended Patons Astra as a substitute, and since that is readily available and relatively inexpensive, we decided we would both try swatching it to see how it would work with both machines.  For Lynne and her standard gauge machine, it was too thick, and she had static problems knitting even just a small swatch.  For me and my mid-gauge, it knit very nicely at T4 and produced a very nice fabric.  Here are the instructions for basic tension swatches courtesy of Lynne:


E-wrap cast on 60 sts with main colour (or weaving cast on for speed)Knit 10 rows 

Knit 2 rows of contrast

Move stitch 21 to 22 on both sides – push needles out of work

With main colour knit 60 rows

Pull out needles 21 on both sides

Knit 2 rows of contrast

Knit 10 rows of main colour

Cast off

Mark your swatch: 1. machine used, 2. yarn used, 3. Tension (main bed, ribber, and mast), 4. Any special notes (eg needed wax on yarn to make is knit smoothly).

Let the swatch rest for several hours and then measure the number of stitches and rows to the inch. It’s best to measure over 4” (or 10 cm if you prefer metric) and then divide by 4.

Fractions are important especially if you are making a large garment as ¼ of a stitch over 40” makes a big difference to the finished size.

I purchased three balls of Astra to play with for each of us - two solid and one multicolour.  Lynne noticed right away that the multicolour ball felt lighter than the two solid balls.   I have a small scale so I decided to weigh them and indeed the multicolour ball weighed in at 48 grams.

 So even though they are both labelled as 50 g of Patons Astra, a closer inspection of the label for the Wild Wizard (multicoloured) ball shows the yardage to be 133 yards or 122 metres, versus that of the solid coloured ball which indicates 161 yards or 147 metres.  Otherwise, price and packaging were the same, as was recommended gauge (hand knit) of 22 sts and 28 rows per 10 cm/4".  The lesson - read the label!

I proceeded to make the basic tension swatches from the directions above for the Oz colour (the solid pictured above) and the Wild Wizard.  Tension 4 is recommended on my machine for this weight of yarn and recommended gauge, so that is usually where I start.  I also let my tension swatches rest, and then wash and block them and let them dry before measuring.

In order to fit them both on the same small padded board, the top one is tipped on its side, the bottom one is oriented how it would have come off the machine.  You'll probably notice the eyelet holes on the bottom left of both swatches - when I remember to I put those in they remind me what gauge I used to knit them.  One of the other things you'll probably notice right away is how much shorter the Oz one is as compared to the Wild Wizard.  I was very surprised at how much shorter it was - so much so that I decided I had better count the rows between the white rows to make sure I hadn't messed up.  I counted twice and got 48 instead of 60 - and realized I must have forgotten to reset my row counter after I did the initial ten rows and two rows of contrast.   Good thing I checked!

Since I only have one ball of the Oz to swatch with for the time being, I decided not to do another, and would just figure out the gauge but with 48 rows instead of 60.  The only disadvantage to this is the larger your swatch, the more accurate your gauge will be, so I have sacrificed some accuracy, but hopefully not enough to cause a problem.  The  main reason I let it go, though, is because my decision point right now is suitability of the yarn, not final gauge and pattern recalculation.  And because it knit very well on my machine and produced a nice fabric, is very inexpensive ($2.99 per ball) and is easily available (Mary Maxim), I will be proceeding with the Astra for this project.  But I will do at least one other tension swatch when the colour I'm using arrives (Faded Denim) in case there are any other variations in colour.

So my final numbers on these two swatches were as follows:

Wild Wizard:  60 rows = 8 1/8"                               Oz:  48 rows = 5 1/4"
                         40 sts     = 7 5/8"                                       40 sts     = 7 5/8"

Or:                   29.5 rows = 10 cm/4"                               36.5 rows = 10 cm/4"
                         20 sts       = 10 cm/4"                                 21 sts      = 10 cm/4"

The Wild Wizard swatch is a bit thin and floppy, so would probably be better knitted at a lower tension number on the dial.  The Oz swatch was pretty good in terms of thickness and drape.  It looks like I will be doing a conversion on this pattern from the 27 sts per 4" as written down to 21 sts per 4".

Next step/blog entry:  I will be ordering the yarn, doing another tension swatch, and figuring out the final measurements that I want my hoodie to be for my best fit.  We'd love to hear from you so please leave your comments or questions below, or just say hi and introduce yourself so we know who is following along with us!

Nancy

Preferences

Preferences