Darn. I was almost convinced I wanted to get a Louet S75. And then reason set in. Seriously, Reason is a total downer when I try to "impulse-buy".
In reality, my spinning hasn't required a second wheel, but after having ready access to a wheel just for plying this past weekend I really can justify the existence of said second wheel in the Wool Princess household. Much of my spinning has been for semi-woolen bulky yarn, to be used in knitting more work sweaters for DH. Usually I spin a ton of singles then ply, and while this system typically insures I finish the project, it limits my spinning creativity. We can't have that, right? Of course there is still the issue of finances.
Anyhoo, here's the first of DH's work sweaters, entirely of medium colored Coopworth handspun. I used EZ's Hurry up Last Minute Sweater pattern. The knitted gauge was about 2 stitches per inch. For scale, this sweater is laying on my laundry room floor, which has 12 inch tiles. Yep, DH is a big guy.
Below is my gauge swatch for sweater #2. The red yarn is Mauch Chunky in Bing Cherry (love this color) and the gray is handspun Columbia. As I prefer to knit in the round, I need to swatch in the round. I am also impatient, and want to get results fast, so instead of knitting a hat, I knit a flat swatch with about an inch of garter stitch for all borders. Instead of purling back on the wrong side I carry the yarn behind the right side and leave some slack. This picture is of the wrong side, showing the loops.
I've been a good girl here, washing, rinsing and drying the swatch just as I would the finished sweater. THEN I took multiple gauge measurements, before settling on the fabric knitted with US8 and getting 15 st to 4 inches. Then I cast on. See?
Did you climb a ladder to take the pix of that sweater? It looks small - good thing you gave the tile size for reference.
The red and gray will be very nice together. Cool way to swatch, never thought of that!
Posted by: teresa | February 06, 2010 at 08:12 AM