Ribbie Swatch

I know, not terribly interesting as blog subjects go, but I love the denimy color of the medium indigo heather Peruvian Highland Wool that I bought to make my single color ChicKnits Ribby Cardie.

The goal with this sweater was to pick a color that I love and know I would wear and pair the color with a sweater design that I also love and would wear. My hope is that, when combining these two, I will get something that I will both love and wear -- and can wear for every day.

This swatch does present something of a mystery for me. I'm definitely getting 6 rows to the inch, and somewhere between 9 to 9.5 stitches/two inches (it's supposed to be 4.75 stitches/inch) but 19 stiches comes closer to 4.5 inches wide. Yes, I know all my measurements can't quite be right. But I measured each dimension several times and I get the same strange results. So the only thing I can conclude is that Claudia is right: swatches lie.

I think it is also a sign of a strange phenomenon in my life right now: I'm becoming a looser knitter. I actually have to think about knitting more tightly. In this case, since my row gauge appears to be good, and the fabric density feels right, so I'm going to go with what I've got and try to knit just a little tighter. I've got enough yarn to do one size larger than I was planning on doing, and it is a ribbed sweater, so even if it's a little bigger than planned width wise, it should still be fine.

I'm leaving for the western part of the United States tomorrow for a short business trip. On the plus side, I should get to see lovely golden Larch trees and snow capped mountains, on the minus side, it's not going to be particularly warm. But as business trips go, it should be a good one, so aside from a lot of airplane time (which will hopefully be productive from a sock-knitting perspective), I'm actually looking forward to it.

But getting ready to go hasn't left a lot of time for me to do much knitting tonight. So instead of displaying what will appear to be infintesimal progress on Clapotis, I will talk about the next project I want to do for me...I know, I was talking about Christmas presents yesterday, and now I'm talking about me. But with only so many cold weather months in which to wear sweaters, a girl has to do a lot of strategic planning to make sure she doesn't miss out on a great wardrobe addition -- or worse, finish a great wardrobe addition just in time for the wrong season to begin.

Have you seen Bonne Marie's wonderful Ribby Cardi? How cool is it that this awesome pattern is the featured design at Elann? I know, this is old news to most of you, but it wasn't until this weekend that I finally got to do a little surfing and see all the great color combinations that people are putting together (Bonne Marrie has put together a page of good ones if you want to check them out).

I spent a long time thinking about whether I wanted a two-toned or solid colored sweater, and in the end I opted for just one color. I think I will get more wear out of the sweater that way. I also opted for a color that I thought I would get a lot of wear out of, even though I kept getting drawn back to those bright purples, greens, blues and reds (I like these colors, but I know that I need to add a bit more subtlety to my wardrobe).

So what did I pick?

Mid Indigo Heather

This denimy shade grabbed me and just wouldn't let go. I think it will do well at both work and play and go with a lot of my winter wardrobe of turtlenecks. And I'm still blown away by the fact that I'll get a whole sweater for about $30.

Picking yarn for this sweater has also left me with a new favorite pastime -- checking Elann to see which colors are still left. For some reason, I'm finding it fascinating to see which colors people like the best. Wanna place bets on which colors will be the last to go?

P.S. Because of my travel schedule, this is likely to be my last post for the week. But I'll be back on Monday!