Swatching

Oopie loves dripping water

Last night I had to re-shoot the video tutorial for the hooded cowl, and had planned to do the editing as well. My cat wasn’t okay with this. He wanted some attention, and I didn’t want to ignore him. (He’s an older guy, so when he begs for attention, I usually give in, as he doesn’t ask for much.)

So, I pulled out some yarn and worked on a swatch to knit up the stitch pattern sequences for the sweater. This I could do sitting next to my cat, and I caught up on back episodes of Dunkelgrün at the same time. (I find Anna to be charming.)

Fizzy Water Stitch, felted

This new swatch I’m doing as a mitered square, so I can felt it and give to a friend to use as a trivet. Here’s a previous attempt at a mitered square using this stitch pattern. (I didn't get the proportions right for this one, but now I know what to do.) I find it's a nice way to practice a stitch, and I really like it felted too. In fact, the gradation in color inspired the gradations I'll use in the sweater.

I had planned to combine two different slipped-stitch patterns (fizzy water stitch in two versions and the slipped garter stitch), but

Slipped Garter Stitch in Split Cowl

doing this swatch confirmed that this was a bad idea. One looks like ribbing and the other looks like garter stitch, and so they can’t transition nicely from one to the next. Just as I was putting my things away for the evening, I came upon a solution, which I’m excited to try. I’ll do that tomorrow after video-editing.

Last night's yarn barf

I wasn't planning to show the swatch because it looked like "yarn barf" to me. But then I realized how helpful it would be to have a record of it so I could see that the final result didn't just appear out of thin air, but from lots of doing and redoing. So, here it is, in its ugliness. It does not help that I chose yarn intended for felting and that the thick-and-thin yarn is terrible for swatching. Not a brilliant idea, but I want to be able to felt the finished swatch.

Mini sweater

This shows just how very un-linear the design process is: Something I thought was settled was most definitely not, and I thought I wasn’t going to be able to work because my cat wanted attention. In fact, he helped my design process but forcing me to do something unplanned. I think it’s interesting that designing this sweater in miniature did not expose this problem with the stitch pattern transition. Note to self: Don’t test patterns with black yarn!

I had planned to stripe the sleeves rather than applying the slipped garter stitch pattern, and now I will need to devise another idea for the sleeves, something that pairs better with the slipped ribbing pattern. So, another "problem" to solve.

Deciding to Dye

I am a fan of buying locally sourced products, and buying from small, local merchants. I have used O-Wool yarns in a few projects, and appreciate that the wool (and cotton) is raised organically, it is dyed for the most part with non-toxic dyes, and its superwash method is non-toxic.

Six Pounds of Undyed Yarn

It is also sourced within the region and much of the manufacturing is done in Philadelphia. This helps me support local businesses and keeps my carbon footprint smaller. Of course, I also like this yarn! Because I can no longer buy it at my LYS (it went kaput a few years ago), I have been ordering online -- but choosing colors online was frustrating to me.

So, since I've been dyeing and overdyeing yarn, I figured, why not just dye whatever yarn I wish to use? Also, I've become a fan of multi-colored yarns, and dyeing my own is the only way I'm going to be able to use multi-colored O-Wool.

But don't think that dyeing yarn feels like something I "have" to do. I really love being in the kitchen and playing with color. (I'm getting twitchy just anticipating the fun I'm going to have!) I have a background in design, and this is perhaps the first time I'm really getting to use my color theory education. I have many ideas for things I want to try, and I will be dyeing the yarn for the sweater I'm supposed to be patterning up. That's why this post isn't a total aside...

Today I will edit the video for the hooded cowl so I can get the pattern (already finished) to my testers, and then I will begin test-dyeing my new wool!

Color Chasing

Linen-stitch scarf using two skeins.

One of my favorite things to do is to use two color-changing yarns together. I think I've only done this with two skeins of the same colorway, and I've always used them from the opposite ends of the skein.

That's fine until you get to the middle, and suddenly you can't tell which skein is which because you're striping the same color from each end.

Removed yellow (top)
First four colors (bottom)

What to do! I knew the last time I did this that I would do it differently. So I am doing what I call a "chase", whereby one yarn color "chases" the other yarn, about four colors behind. I'm using Noro Taiyo Lace. As I know that I need to use no more than 50% of the skein for the first half of the shawl, I have wound it into a cake. This allows me to remove the cardboard insert so I know exactly how much yarn I have to begin with and don't overshoot. Just to be sure, I wrote down the total weight on the cardboard and shoved it back into the center of the cake, and I weighed it with the cardboard. Just covering all my bases!

Groovellous by Nim Teasdale

I wound the first skein and noted the color changes as I finished it up, and decided which colorways I wanted to work together. I started with a pale green for my main color and the fuscia for the contrasting color.

I used this colorway on a sweater (in fingering weight), and although the yellow made it interesting, I did not want the yellow in this shawl. First, it would be too matchy-matchy with the sweater (I'll show you some matchy-matchy later), and everything else looks great in this yarn without the yellow. So as I wound it into cakes, I removed the yellow.

The result is that the color pairs are lovely. Both yarns transition to grays and then reverse themselves. I am pretty sure I won't end up striping the same color from both skeins at the same time.

This pattern is easy to memorize once you set it up and get going, so it's a nice piece to knit while watching entertaining blogs, shows, etc. I took it with me while I taught a couple to knit last week -- and only knit once I had them knitting along.

As a final note, I chose this yarn because it was in my stash.* I am mostly working from my stash, using yarn as is or over-dyeing it to make it match better with other yarns I wish to use. A couple of years ago two of my local yarn stores went out of business and I bought a lot of yarn, mostly with projects in mind. However, having lots of yarn sitting around makes me anxious that there's not enough time to knit up all my inspirations, so moving through it feels really good.

*As I neared the 50% mark, I realized the shawl would be too small, and I prefer and extravagant size. So, I searched on ravelry for someone with a skein they were willing to sell, and expect it any day now.

Chronicling the Design Process

I've decided to chronicle my design process, partly to keep myself moving forward with my design work, as well as a way to share how my creative process works for me. I don't know how it is for others, but for me, it's never straightforward from concept to finished design. I can be working on a design and launch in on the needles, be excited about it the whole way. And then I take the blocking pins off or take it off its form, and flop. It doesn't work at all! I have found, though, that pattern-writing strongly influences my designs in what I think is a very good way. It forces me to use repetitive sequences rather than "quick fixes" or fudges and I appreciate that tremendously, especially when I want to replicate a project or part of one.

This happened the other day with a hat. I had finished it months ago (March, to be more specific), and it was okay, but it wasn't something I was going to write a pattern for -- which means it wasn't good enough. (It was part of my Chemowear Series, but I don't think I ever wore it during chemo.)



So, after making a successful beret recently, I decided that I'd make this a beret, and use an element from the Groovellous shawl I'm knitting for fun. (I sorely needed a break from knitting up my own stuff, as it felt like all I was doing was working! It's nice to knit up someone else's work.)

I love all these things about this hat, but it just doesn't work. It doesn't sit properly on my head, the hat band is too long, and this lovely element doesn't work, mostly because it doesn't bend very well. So now what? I like the stitch pattern in the hat band and I really like the combination of the two different striped elements.

  

Maybe it becomes a cowl? Maybe I take it down and make the hat band shorter and make it all stripes? One thing that does work is the section of garter ridges, so potentially I can keep that. Another option is to make it a cowl, and keep the hat band knit so far and finish the rest, inverting the color pattern.

In the meantime, this will go on the back burner. That usually works well for me, and I don't want it to take away from other planned designs I've been working on -- or rather neglecting -- because of what sometimes seem more "urgent" brain requests.

Fizzy Water Cowl

I've been doing a ton of design work recently, mostly based on my fizzy water stitch, and I've been seriously avoiding writing the pattern for the sweater. It's a big project, and I need to just start. I've done a miniature mockup, and I've made a lot of notes, so there's no excuse. There, I've said it, and now I have to move forward on it! For reference, here's the fizzy water cowl, for which I used this stitch the first time.

So, I will work on writing the pattern while the hooded version of this cowl is being tested.

Note: I am specifically limiting my attention to the design of this page so that I can focus on the projects I already have in mind, and not using this space to procrastinate. I am already an expert!