I have been swatching for a summer top for weeks. Honestly, I could have knit an entire garment in this time! I'm not always one to swatch, but there is this wicked frugal streak in me and it's showing its determination to find a use for some hand me down Misti Cotton yarn. Lynsey made a keyhole top out of it and had almost 3 full hanks left. We swapped (I gifted her the BS Nature's spectrum yarn I made a cardi out of, handpainted, 100% wool, very neat) and this yarn has been haunting me ever since. I have swatched it on various needles for no less than three different patterns. Beginning with Lotus Blossom (it's way to heavy) then Isabella (the stitch gauge/row gauge threw the pattern off horribly no matter what needles I tried) and then settling on Lelah borrowing these major modifications for my middle-aged lump body. I CO twice, ultimately I had to frog and CO a third time. That's the charm. Now I can report that I CO with a size 10 using my gauge swatch to determine the # of stitches, as the pattern was seriously off. When I followed the pattern for the size large, i ended up with a bottom measurement of 50"! YIPES! I'm decreasing needle sizes to create some shaping. This needs to go from a 40" hip to a 32" under bust. So I'm dropping from a 10 to an 8 then to a 6. The plan is for this to use up the Misti Cotton and some Shine worsted left overs. I am serious about this frugal knitting stuff. Then I will reward myself with Elann Sonata for Lotus Blossom.
No comments:
Post a Comment