Wednesday, August 17, 2005

In the studio



Scarf, wool and nylon, garter stitch

I've gone to my favorite shops and looked for various purple and gold (sometimes plain old yellow) combinations, and this one is one of the most fun so far. I'm using intarsia technique to get half a row of purple and half a row of gold, so the stripe is lengthwise. I'm using Brown Sheep bulky for the purple and a combination for the gold of nylon and wool (the wool is to provide the bulk necessary so that the two colors are the same bulkiness). It feels fabulous and looks like a split personality scarf. The purple side has defined stitches and lines and the gold side is fluffy and messy.

These experiments are making me think more seriously about swatching, which I haven't ever done much. I'm concerned about the dyes and making sure that they don't ruin the colors, so I'm trying to begin washing swatches.

Well...I will next time...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

*heh*. yeah, swatching for scarves and pillow covers isn't really necessary. but i almost always end up making clothing in other yarns than those recommended with a pattern, and my first jacket without swatching was a, uh, learning experience.

LorreS said...

It's rare for me to swatch for guage too. Sorry about your jacket. I started a cotton tank last summer from Sally Melville's Purl stitch book, and that was the first piece for which I did a swatch for guage in probably 20 years.

Anonymous said...

I don't swatch for gage since I'm mostly making scarves these days, but I will swatch for combinations and for stitches. I'm finding I almost always prefer seed stitch to garter stitch for showing off the yarn, although with a very fuzzy one, it doesn't always matter. I really like to combine yarns and what I think will work doesn't always. I guess it's not really fair to say I swatch, so much as that the first 15 rows of any project are provisional.