A couple of days ago I came across a colorwork sweater I fell in love with . . more like . . became obsessed with.
I spent hours and hours browsing yarn shops to come up with the perfect yarn/colors. The pattern recommended fingering weight, single ply yarn. I’m not a huge fan of fingering weight sweaters and have never made a single ply sweater, fearing it will pill like crazy.
I thought about using the Harrisville Highland yarn that I used for the mittens. Since the leftovers were still handy, I grabbed those and did a swatch. I started with the recommended needle size, then went down one size. In both of them, I can see the blue yarn behind the white yarn.
In the sweater on the pattern, I can see black floats behind the white yarn and I don’t like that at all. I thought about using sport weight yarn and a tighter gauge.
I had leftovers single ply fingering weight yarn so I did a swatch with that too.
I did the same thing – using the suggested needle size and then going down a size. I love the design but I’m not sure I want a fingering weight colorwork sweater.
Basically, I spent about 1-1/2 days shopping, planning, swatching, stash diving . . and now I’m not even sure I want to make the sweater. At least, if I decide not to make it, I hadn’t already ordered yarn.
Susan Nixon says
The bottom one, because of the flecks of color in the yarn, really doesn’t show so much. Does blocking change things? Sometimes we need time to figure out what we DON’T want to do, too.
Joyce in Washington says
Did you see the email from MadTosh about their single ply fingerweight weight + tweed yarn today? Very tempting stuff! 🙂
Judy Laquidara says
I did see it but their prices have gone up so much! I did get a few skeins of the tweed in the big sale. I doubt I’ll be buying any more Madtosh unless they have a sale.