A Bluestocking Knits

Well, it’s been a quiet week in Swing-Jacket-town.  Theresa has been distracted — understandably, go and have a look! — by her Dragonscale socks.  But Kat modestly says, "I’ve made a bit more progress since my last blog post," by which she means that she is almost done. "The sleeves are now finished and are blocking. In the meantime, I’m seaming the body pieces and knitting the collar. I’ve decided to add in a zipper as well so hopefully I’ll be able to find one in a matching color."

I had a surprising amount of trouble getting the gauge with the Extrafine Merino.  I usually knit loose, so I started off with one size smaller than recommended on the ball band — too big — down one — still too big — down another … finally ended up with a swatch on US3s that was just a smidge too big, and another on US2s that was a bit stiff.  I am one of those, however, that purls too loosely, and while I am fully aware of this and vow daily to purl with less abandon, it rarely seems to show in the finished stockinette — hence the solution here of using a US3 needle for the knit stitches and a US2 for the purls, solving two problems at once.

(This, for those of you who don’t have the problem, eliminates that curious wobbly effect on stockinette, when the tension of the knit and purl stitches is inconsistent.

You can see the difference here, between the two swatches and the first piece.  They have all been blocked.)

I started the Swing Jacket with the yoke, also remembering my tendency to work a project with quite a different tension than my gauge swatch, once I get into it.  The yoke — the smallest piece of the jacket — is essentially another swatch.

This could also qualify as a Project Spectrum piece for this month, if I could figure out how get a consistent color from my camera!  The wool is actually a purplish red, but the light this morning — very overcast and grey — brings out the blues in it.