In the morning things are clearer

Like when you remember that you accidentally left out the vinegar step in the Wilton's part of your dyeing. The brown is pretty ooky - more of a coppery orange, so it will be going back into the dye pot today. I like the pinks all right, so let's see if cleaning up the brown will help. It needs a little blue added to it to really compliment the pink, though, so I'll add some pink to the brown and see if the magenta in it will help. This time I'll do it on the stove with the help of my mason jars and see if we can get some real color in there.

So, the gauge swatch for Jemima Puddleduck is done. I am seriously worried about this yarn on these needles. The pattern calls for Cashsoft DK knit at an aran gauge - #8s, 4.5 to the inch. The Breeze makes an awfully thin fabric (which could be fine for a summer sweater, I'm not sure yet). The Cashsoft is 142 yards per 50g - the Breeze is 202. So you can see where the problem is, right? (Thank God for the lady over at Go Knit in Your Hat.)

I'm not worried about it being summery, but I am worried about possibly making a delicate fabric that gets destroyed after wearing it a few times or never really drapes properly. After knitting, my gauge was right at 5 sts per inch whether I used an 8 or a 9 - isn't it funny how some yarn just wants to be knitted at a certain stitch gauge no matter what needle you use? After washing, it opened up a lot to what is more or less 4.5, but you can really see through it.

What I'm trying to do now is decide if I should go down to a 7, get a gauge that is more comfortable for the yarn, and make the next size or two up, or knit it on the 8s and hope for the best...I can figure out how big around to make it from the pattern instructions and adjust that accordingly, and just work out the lengths as I go. I'm going to rewash the swatch and just let it do whatever it wants - without fierce blocking, it may not change so much. I made the smallest size baby cardigan (but paid attention to the lengths for the bigger sizes) and it seemed to work well. I'm not really up to revising every stitch count on my own to get gauge, but I could do it. I do know that Anna tends to knit a lot more tightly than I do - I found that out with Elfine's Socks.

So I don't know. But here are the pictures.

(The art director accidentally got his paw in this one)






(Update! I just went back to Purlpower's site, and she had the same problem! She used this free helper to get her gauge right, and did an awesome job! I'm going to follow in her footsteps. #7 swatch, here I come!)