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I Like to Swatch

When it's hot, hot, hot, who wants to knit big wool items? At most, I could knit socks right now. So in the past few days I've used my spare time for swatching. I know a lot of knitters who dislike swatching, whether be it for gauge or other reasons. I love it. Unfortunately I'm a very disorganized swatcher, since almost invariably I forget to write down notes about my swatches: needle size, yarn, and so on.

I like making swatches to try out new patterns or to see how a pattern works out with different yarns and needle sizes.

Quando fa un caldo bestia, chi ha voglia di lavorare a maglia oggetti di grosse dimensioni? Al massimo potre fare dei calzettini. Così negli ultimi giorni ho usato il mio tempo libero per fare campioncini. Conosco un sacco di knitters ("magliste" non mi piace, ma non mi viene in mente un termine migliore) che odiano fare dei campioncini per qualsiasi motivo. Io lo adoro. Purtroppo, sono disorganizzatissima e quasi invariabilmente mi dimentico di prendere appunti sui campioni che faccio, il tipo di lana, la misura dei ferri, e così via.

A week or so ago I swatched the Myrtle Leaf shawl pattern in different laceweight yarns: Zephyr, Jagger's Super Merino, and Cashwool (Lane Borgosesia). Not that I want to make another shawl like the last one, but I didn't have a new lace pattern picked out and I wanted to see how I liked the new yarns. To my surprise, I didn't enjoy knitting with Cashwool. It's a wonderful yarn, super soft, really lovely, but a bit too thin for me.

Una settimana fa ho fatto tre campioni usando il motivo del Myrtle Leaf shawl con queste lane: Zephyr, Jagger's Super Merino, and Cashwool (Lane Borgosesia). Non che abbia voglia di fare un altro scialle come l'ultimo, ma non avevo scelto un nuovo motivo per pizzo a maglia e volevo vedere come mi sarebbero piaciute le nuove lane. Con mia grande sorpresa, non mi è piaciuto lavorare con Cashwool. È una lana bellissima e morbidissima, ma ho scoperto che preferisco lavorare con una lana leggermente più grossa. Non di tanto, ma Cashwool è un po' troppo sottile per me.

The swatch you see here is for the "Ribbed Lace Pullover" motif from the book Gathering of Lace. I am enamored with this stitch pattern and I considered knitting the pullover, but I don't think I'm quite ready for such an endeavor. Despite the level of difficulty being indicated as "intermediate", this pattern requires my constant attention and even for the swatch I made a few mistakes and had to tink my way back after inverting a few cables.

Il campioncino che vedete qui è per il motivo del "Ribbed Lace Pullover" dal libro "Gathering of Lace". Sono innamorata di questo design e ho pensato di fare il pullover, ma non credo di essere pronta per un'impresa del genere. Nonostante il livello di difficoltà indicato sia quello "intermedio", il motivo richiede costante attenzione e già per il campione ho fatto diversi errori e ho dovuto disfare alcuni giri perchè avevo invertito un paio di trecce.

I find this pairing of cables and lace very appealing and I need to get this motif out of my system so yesterday I cast on for a small scarf using this stitch pattern. It will be a very skinny scarf and probably not that long either, but it looks promising already.

Trovo che questo accoppiamento di trecce e traforato è molto attraente e devo togliermi la voglia di usarlo, quindi ieri ho iniziato una sciarpina. Sarà una sciarpa molto stretta e probabilmente nemmeno molto lunga, ma promette già bene.

Comments

I love the swatch! Great color and the pattern is beautiful.

That looks beautiful! I, too, love to swatch, if only to test drive different yarns.

Is the Zephyr thicker than cashwool? I, on the other hand, am loving how fun it is to knit with the thin cashwool ;) haha. To each their own eh?
I'm really trying to embrace swatching more. I'm even starting to do big swatches now so that I can see how well a yarn works with all these cables and laces I want to do. Sometimes, I really do need to do the practically a sweater swatch to get a good idea. I never could embrace this concept before. I guess I'm growing more in the craft :) or that, I'm trying to minimize my disappointment at knitted items.

Great swatch! I love that warm yellow ... and the intricacies of the cables ... love it!
I also wanted mention that I feel so jealous over that skein of wollmeise! It's just so gorgeous ....

I post bilingua mi aiutano molto nella comprensione delle parole tecniche, grazie!

Saluti,

Chiara

Oh, how I wish I were like you. I wish I enjoyed swatching. Maybe someday...(sigh)...

I think the sweater/scarf/hat/mitten/laceything is the swatch...rip up if it isn't working...blasphemy to some! (: but enjoy your swatching ways if you must!

That color is FANTASTIC! It shows the pattern so nicely.

that is one gorgeous swatch...you're being much too hard on yourself...it definitely looks like you're ready for this knitting endeavor! go for it!

Does is say something strange about me that I looked at that swatch and thought "SOCKS!"
Do I really want to mess with that cable on size 1's? really???

(and isn't BeadLizard the most amazing woman?)