WIP Wednesday: 9th October 2019: Turns out I knitted a *really large* gauge swatch!

Before Edinburgh Yarn Festival, I shared the yoke for my Starfall sweater. Yes, I had planned to have a jumper knitted in time to wear to the festival, but a poor combination of yarn and pattern in the form of Bright Above Me, and therefore a late start on my EYF jumper meant that in the end I wasn't in any hurry as I knew I'd never have it finished in time.

I'd done some heavy modification of the pattern: I started with the yoke, casting on provisionally as I wanted to knit the coursework as-written, but knit the sleeves and body top-down to make it easier to adjust the lengths as I went. I'd done a bit of guesswork on which needles to use for the sweater: I had a gauge swatch from knitting Bright Above Me, but knew I needed the gauge to be a bit tighter, so I dropped a needle size and cast on the size I thought would fit.

I really enjoyed knitting the yoke. The colour work was engaging, with some rows using three colours, and I loved watching the pattern emerge. Once I'd completed the colourwork section, I picked up the stitches from the provisional cast-on, and knitted the yoke as far as the sleeve separation. I decided to make a modification to the sleeve placement, putting the sleeves further back to accommodate my bust (the pattern is written to have the sleeves placed such that the front and the back of the sweater are the same width, which doesn't work for everyone). As I wanted to check that the sleeves were in the right place before knitting the rest of the sweater, I put the whole thing onto waste yarn and blocked what I had knitted so far.

The blocking did the desired trick, evening out the colourwork and showing me how large the finished jumper would be. I put the jumper on, and could immediately tell that while my sleeve placement modification was perfect, the jumper was going to be too big, especially the sleeves. Boo.

I left the jumper alone for a few days (just in case it suddenly shrank, or I suddenly grew, and it would, by some miracle, fit), then sat down and measured the actual gauge of the knitting I'd done, and compared the final measurements at that gauge to my measurements. I needed to knit a size smaller.

When I first cast on the Starfall sweater, I had planned to omit the colourwork at the cuffs and hem, but, having looked at the completed yoke, I now know that I do want to do all that colour work too.

All in all, this means that I had to start again, and actually knit the pattern as written (from the bottom-up, with colourwork everywhere!), and that happening this weekend. I've really enjoyed picking this up again. I've switched the lighter shade of grey to a slightly different one as I didn't have enough for all the colourwork, and so far have most of a sleeve. I'll block that first sleeve while I'm knitting the second, so that I can check the length. Fingers crossed this attempt at the jumper is more successful than the first!

What's currently on your needles?

Project page for the Starfall sweater.

FO Friday: Witches Brew socks

Over the Easter weekend, my son complained that none of his hand-knitted socks fitted him any more. My son is pretty knit-worthy (he is always first to tell me that his hand-knits need washing so he can wear them again), so I decided that as his feet aren't too enormous (they're about a UK 2), I would cast him on some new socks, as requested.

I was clearly feeling in a decadent mood, and decided to let my son choose what yarn he would like from my stash, so we spent a good half hour rummaging through all my sock yarn, and my son fished out these three beauties (don't worry mum, I don't need all three pairs at once. You can cast-on this yarn first...). These three skeins of yarn also happen to be three of my favourites (he has excellent taste, or maybe I've just trained him well). I did think about saying he couldn't have them as they were resevered for me, then remembered that a lot of the pleasure is in the knitting, so I would get to enjoy them that way, even if I didn't get to wear the finished socks. And I do have a lot of sock yarn.

I had planned another sock cast on for the Easter weekend, but as I already own a lot of socks that fit me, and my feet don't grow, I decided that it would make more sense to cast on the socks for my son immediately.

Rather than working out the measurements for a UK size 2 foot, it's sometimes quicker to draw round the recipient's foot (especially if you have them to hand) and use that as a template for the socks; as an added bonus apparently 6 year olds think having your feet drawn round is highly amusing. I did decline the Sharpie he handed me first - I wasn't sure he'd be amused by having a black line drawn on his actual foot...

To make this a quick and easy project, I used the Fish Lips Kiss pattern, which I have memorised. I don't follow the instructions included in the pattern about getting the foot length right as I find it makes the foot a tiny bit long, instead I measure the length of the toe once it's worked, then add an extra half inch and subtract the total from the length of the foot and start the heel at that point (clear as mud? Good).

I knitted these socks back to back over ten days, but the observant among you will notice that the yarn has pooled differently between the two socks. Somehow between the first and second socks my gauge changed slightly (one sock weighs half a gram more than the other). I have no idea why - I used the same needles throughout - and my son either hasn't noticed or isn't bothered. Variegated yarn is funny!

When I got to the end of the socks I weighed the leftovers, and there is *just* enough yarn left for me to knit some socks for me if I use a contrast yarn for the heels, toes and cuffs! I just need to decide what colour to use for the contrast...

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Witches Brew socks Ravelry project page
Pattern: Fish Lips Kiss by Sox Therapist
Yarn: 75% BLF, 25% nylon 4 ply from Felt Fusion in the colourway Witches Brew