I have been away from blogging for about five months. There were a number of reasons for this. First, I just got busy with other things and didn’t seem to be able to find time to sit down and write any posts. And then, my knitting projects just didn’t seem to be getting finished — even though I was knitting. And then, my husband started on our remodeling project — which was/is my office. The remodeling will be worth it when it is done — but when it will be done doesn’t seem to be anytime soon. I now have my computer set up in the spare bedroom and I have retrieved a few skeins of yarn and patterns from the boxes I packed up several weeks ago — so I can knit. But heaven help me if I need to find any of my knitting books or any of my yarn stash! It’s all in boxes and plastic containers, stacked three deep and nearly to the ceiling in the garage. (So any future knitting projects are an excuse to go yarn shopping…) I’ll update you on the remodeling progress — here’s to hoping it’s done by the time I need to decorate for the Christmas holiday.
I do have a finished object! I have finished my Clapotis shawl.
I haven’t blocked it yet. Blocking will have to wait until I have free floor space again (remodeling). Here are the details:
Pattern: Clapotis – free on Knitty.com
Yarn: Jaggerspun Zephyr (50% wool, 50% silk) Colorway: Teal Needles: U.S. 4 (3.5 mm)
Since this is a laceweight yarn, I knit 18 repeats of the straight rows to get the length I wanted.
Unblocked the shawl measures 17 inches wide by 62 inches long. It will be wider and longer after blocking.
It’s a lovely, soft shawl and I am very happy with the way it turned out. I liked the finished shawl so much, I cast-on another using Knit Picks Gloss from my stash. More about this WIP another time.
It took me a good bit of time to decide if I thought it was necessary to knit swatches in the round if I was knitting an item in the round rather than flat. The practice of knitting sweaters flat in pieces that are sewn together versus knitting sweaters in the round is, in itself, a whole topic with proponents for each practice. I may take this topic up at a later time, but for now I will focus on knitting a swatch in the round.
First, there are many knitters and designers who only use gauge swatches knit flat to determine their stitch gauge even if the pattern is knit in the round, and second, most patterns do not state how the gauge swatch was done. All you see in the pattern is the gauge statement.
Do you know if your gauge is the same if you knit in the round as when you knit flat? There’s a good chance that it’s not. As I’ve said before, gauge is a measure of how an individual knitter knits.
Think about how you knit when you knit in the round. One of the biggest differences is that you only knit on the right side of the fabric when you knit in the round. Using stockinette stitch as an example: When you knit flat, you knit one row (right side) and then turn your work and purl the next (wrong side). When you knit in the round, you join the stitches to make a circle and then knit every round.
Now, if you are one of the many knitters whose purls are looser than their knits, there is going to be a difference in tension between something you knit flat and something you knit in the round. Plus, you may modify your technique for knitting when knitting in round from when you knit flat. If you use straight needles when knitting flat, then switch to using circular needles or double point needles (dpns) to knit circular – your gauge may be significantly different. This is why I have come to the conclusion that it is good practice to swatch in the round when planning a project that will be knit in the round.
So how does one knit a swatch in the round? The first method is to cast on a enough stitches to give you a knitted tube that will be at least 4+ inches when laid flat. This could be the start of a sock or a hat. (Elizabeth Zimmerman said that “a hat makes a good swatch”.) Once you have a tube knitted of sufficient length for a good measurement, you treat this swatch the same way you would if your swatch that was knitted flat – i.e. measure, block, re-measure.
The second method goes by a couple of different names: “Speed Swatch” and “Circular Swatch with Floats” are two that I have found in my research. In this method, you use a circular needle and cast on the same number of stitches you would if you were knitting flat. But instead of knitting a row and then turning the swatch and knitting back to the end of the row, you slide your stitches to the needle on the opposite end and strand the working yarn loosely across the back and start knitting the next row. You keep repeating this process until you have a long enough swatch for good measurements. See pictures below:
Front of Swatch ITR — Knit with US 8 and Us 7 Needles
Back of Swatch ITR
Once you have the swatch completed, you treat it the same way as any swatch – measure unblocked, block, re-measure. A note about measuring this swatch: Some sources suggest that it is easier to measure this swatch after cutting the loose strands so that the swatch will lay flat. Others simply say to measure the swatch by laying it as flat as you can. Logically, you are not going to want to cut the strands if you plan to reuse the yarn in the swatch. I’ve tried both ways and did not find a significant difference in measurements. Here are pictures of the swatch above after I blocked it and cut the floats to take the measurements:
So if you plan to knit a sweater in the round, please do your swatch in the round.
If you would like to see a video on this technique, here are three helpful ones:
I am making significant progress on my Color Block Vest. In fact, I am nearly done! So Saturday, I realized that I really needed to go buy buttons for this vest. And off I went.
Now, I must admit that it has been some time since I ventured into a fabric store to buy buttons. And usually when I am buying buttons, I am also buying thread and fabric to match. What I discovered is that in the time that I have been absent from the fabric store scene that things have really changed. Changed in a good way, actually. Oh my! the selection was enormous! And really wonderful. In addition to the standard buttons in rather standard colors that come in sets of four or five — there are all these unique and stylish buttons available. Who knew? Obviously, not someone like me who hasn’t ventured into the button section of the fabric store in a good long while.
I was enormously challenged — I had so many choices! Wonderful choices! And then…I found them! The perfect buttons for my vest!
Aren’t these just wonderful? They have a lovely brown background with swirls of pink, green and darker reddish brown. They match the three colors where they will be placed nicely.
As wonderfully matched as these buttons are — I must also admit to sticker shock when I went to check out. They were on sale, fortunately, but even at that they were expensive. I paid $7.00 apiece for them. (ON SALE!) Who knew buttons could cost so much? Now, I was willing to spend the money to get these perfect buttons — especially since I have invested money in a high quality yarn for this project. Still I think that buttons should not be so expensive. Even if they are perfect…
Swatches 7 through 9 are demonstrations of various decrease techniques.
Swatch #7
Swatch 7 demonstrates “Blended Decreases” using SSK (Slip, Slip, Knit) on the right edge and K2Tog (Knit 2 Together) on the left edge.
SSK is a left-slanting decrease and is made by slipping 1 stitch as if to knit, then slipping a second stitch as if to knit, then inserting the left needle into these two stitches and knitting them together.
K2Tog is a right-slanting decrease. K2Tog decreases are the basic decrease every knitter learns. You simply insert the right needle into two stitches on the left needle and knit them together.
I have had difficulty finding a reference that actually defines “Blended Decreases”. Through my research it appears that “Blended Decreases” are decreases that slant or slope in the direction of the desired shaping. In this swatch the left-slanting decrease on the right edge and the right-slanting decrease on the left edge slope in toward the center of the swatch.
SKP decreases are also sometimes written as S1, K1 PSSO in patterns. This is a left-slanting decrease and is done on the right edge of the swatch. Any decrease that requires you to pass a stitch over another one results in a somewhat uneven stitch due to the stretching that occurs when you pass the stitch over.
The KSP decrease was a new method for me. It is a right-slanting decrease that mirrors the SKP decrease and was knit on the left edge of this swatch. KSP is done by knitting a stitch, then slipping the stitch back on the left needle and passing the stitch over the next stitch with the right needle, then slipping the stitch back from the left needle to the right needle.
Swatch #9
Swatch 9 uses the K2Tog and SSK decreases but is different from Swatch 7 in that the K2Tog is done on the right edge and the SSK is done on the left edge.
TKGA refers to this swatch as “Full Fashioned”. I have not found a specific definition for the term “Full Fashioned” in my references. However, two of my sources refer to full fashioned decreases as decreases that are done with 2 or more stitches on the edge, making the decreases more visible and part of the intended design of the knitted fabric. In this swatch, the K2Tog decrease on the right edge slants to the right and stands out against the slope of the fabric. Likewise the SSK decrease on the left edge slants to the left and stands out against the slope of the fabric on that side. These decreases are more visible than those in Swatch 7.
