You will no doubt recognize the two blue ones on the bottom as my Paton's Astra swatches, likewise the two on the top in variegated and green from my previous entry on swatching. From left to right across the middle are Lynne's Honiburd Cotton, Judie's King Cole Superwash Merino 4 ply, and Pat's Zodiac 4 ply. It is great to see the diversity, and also to have Lynne's in the original yarn called for by the pattern.
So the next step is measuring our gauge - stitches and rows. Aside from the previous entry on this blog I linked to above, here is another article on making a tension swatch that you may find interesting. There are many more out there. Also, you may notice on my blue swatch on the bottom right there is a narrow strip of cabling- I thought I would use the swatch to also play with possible design elements. Swatching is the perfect opportunity to test and experiment so have fun with it!
So with everyone hard at work measuring their swatches...
there are a few important points to remember. When measuring, make sure that you don't pull on the swatch - you want the true measurement when the swatch is "at rest". You also want to make sure that you are measuring as large an area as possible for maximum accuracy. If my 40 stitches measure 19 centimeters, then I will calculate the number of stitches I need directly from that. So, (40 stitches per 19 centimeters) x 66 centimeters (desired width) = 139 stitches. And I would then round that up to 140 stitches just to work with an even number.
To use an extreme example to illustrate how "size matters", if you measure only an inch, and count 5 1/4 stitches, and decide to round down and make it 5 stitches per inch, then you may end up with something you've not bargained for. If you want the back of your sweater to be, say, 20", then 5 stitches per inch x 20 inches gives a result of 100 stitches. If you don't round down, and use the actual measurement of 5 1/4 stitches per 1 inch x 20 inches, your result is 105 stitches. Rounding down means you have lost an inch across the back, and therefore 2 inches in total across the back and front. So instead of the desired 40" (20 across the back, 20 across the front), your sweater is now 38" around.
So for me, I like to use the largest measurement available to me across the swatch, and I don't do any rounding until I get the final stitch (or row) count.
Next Step
Way back when we first started this, we did a rough outline and posted it here. So with our swatches done and measured we're ready for step 6, or step 7 if you don't wish to make any design modifications. (Step 6 items should be a, b, c, etc., but for some reason blogger will not let me go in and correct or edit that.)
Also, one important consideration that we have not talked about yet is how much yarn are we going to need. Of course this is going to depend on any further modifications to the design that you may want to make, but there are some general guidelines that are helpful. First, the pattern itself notes that the smaller size required 480 grams of the Honiburd. Judie checked Ravelry (an excellent resource if you are not already familiar with it), and found that a couple of other people on the site had knitted the Hoods Up! pattern and found that for them (with different yarns) 2 cones were required. One person used Jaggerspun Ragwool Peacock and changed the front closure from a zipper to buttons. The other used Bonita Cotton and also indicated they needed two cones. In both cases, however, I don't think much of the second cone was used.
Another useful resource is this chart from Lion Brand Yarns. You will notice that yarn estimates are given in yards, not weight. If you don't know the yards/metres of your chosen yarn if it isn't noted on the label, you should be able to find the specifications online from the manufacturer's website.
So, give some consideration to any changes you might like to make to the overall design. Determine your measurements - either have someone measure you or measure your favourite fitting sweater, and make note of those measurements as compared to the measurements in Mary Anne's schematics found in the pattern. I made an enlarged photocopy for myself of just the schematics and marked the measurements I want for my sweater in red.
Time Line
Having been seriously sidetracked in round one of this knit-a-long we are hesitant to put too much of a strict time line on this. We know that many of you can't start until after Christmas. That is the beauty of the blog entries and the comments from participants - they will be here when you get here! My current goal is to check in with an entry once a week or so for the month of December, except perhaps right around Christmas. So just work at your own pace and let's not put undue pressure on ourselves, especially this time of year.
We also are looking at another possible get together sometime in January for a machine cleaning meet up. As always, we really encourage your comments and feedback and questions. A great question came up Thursday night that we are researching and I will write about that as soon as we have an answer - it relates to the pattern conversion which is step 7 in our rough outline.
Finally, a reminder - if you are reading this via an email notification, I believe that you need to actually visit the blog through your browser (Explorer, Chrome, Safari, Firefox, whatever) in order to see or make comments. It is easier to see previous entries and links to resources if you are visiting here directly through your browser.
It's a great day for knitting with all the wind and rain and snow outside, so I hope you are able to take advantage of it!
Nancy
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