Kaleidoscope: August 2006 Archives
I wish my knitting projects were a little more photogenic right now. By that, I don't mean they're ugly, I just mean that they haven't changed too much since the last photo, or showing off the progress on the second of two socks seems a bit repetitive. But today, while I was sitting on my deck knitting on Dad's Kaleidoscope Vest, I had some realizations -- and not just that it was incredibly amazing that I could sit outside in August with a lapful of wool and not be sweating profusely.
I have to start out by saying that the gauge on this sweater is a bit odd: 21.5 stitches and 44 rows to 10 cm (4"). I did knit a gauge swatch, and I did get something almost exactly the same, that was a fabric I liked so I decided to cast on and get going. Now that I have a 60 cm x 42 cm piece of fabric to measure gauge on it has become clear that my gauge is not quite perfect. I'm getting 21 stitches and about 42 rows to 10 cm (I'm using the metric measurements here because that is what Jo Sharp uses and that's what I'm remembering right now).
The reality of the situation is that even if I had gone down a needle size, it probably wouldn't have made that much difference -- it's hard to change a needle and expect a change of .125 stitches per inch, when I'm in the needle range that can only really be varied by .5 mm. This means that the fabric is about 2 cm wider than it should be (not a big deal because this vest is meant to have a lot of ease in it anyway -- I'm making the second smallest size for my dad of a pattern that is also supposed to be woman compatible -- clearly this design comes from boxier era). It also means that I can't use the row counts that the pattern calls for as a determination of when to do things. I have to actually work with measurements. Fortunately, this is not a problem with this pattern. even though there's stripes, there's nothing fancy about how they are used. Instead of 158 rows before the armhole shaping, I'm going to have 150-152.
No, the only real concern is whether the extra width is going to mean that I run out of yarn somewhere. I bought this yarn on Elann about three years ago, so there's not much liklihood that I will be able to find another ball in the same dyelot of one of these if I come up short.
I still love the texture, though. It looks complicated, but its very easy to knit. And in this colorway, I think it's very man-friendly. Even though my dad is willing to experiment with color, I wanted to go with something that would have a little subtlety to it.
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