February | 2022 | PDXKnitterati

It was a splendidly beautiful day yesterday; it got up to 67 degrees F (19 C); which is unusual for February in Portland. I took my work outside. My math swatch has paid off, and I’m done with the first section of my new design. The next step required some charting and planning to make stitch counts work out on the repeat (do you sense a theme here?). I want to alternate the variegated and semi-solid, and give the variegated yet another chance to sing. This yarn is Knitted Wit Sock in The Future is Bright and Kiss and Teal.

The book on the table is Lorna Miser’s The Hand Knitter’s Guide to Hand-Dyed and Variegated Yarn. It talks about different dye methods, and how to make the most of them. A lot of the book is about how to recognize if colors will pool, and how to avoid pooling, if desired. There are lots of stitch patterns to play with. I’ve swatched the one that it will be perfect for this project. We shall see.

Sometimes you want colors to pool, and Hunter Hammersen’s Stochastic Hat is an example of that. She worked with Gauge Dyeworks to make a yarn with spaced out color runs, just long enough to knit random color burbles into the hat. (As well as a section to knit a brim all in the contrast color, whoa.) You can use any yarn for this hat, but the thought of knitting it with assigned pooling (the yarn tells you when to make the burbles) is fun.

I was going to knit this hat with Knit Picks Chroma Worsted, but the fuzzy single ply (top) doesn’t want to settle nicely into burbles. The smooth superwash yarn (Malabrigo Rios, below) is much better behaved. I’m not sure I have a hat’s worth in two coordinating colors, though. I’ll poke around a little more. I’m glad I swatched the burbles *before* jumping in and knitting an entire hat brim before finding out my yarn wasn’t going to cooperate! Swatching can be very helpful.

I’m teaching a Zoom class on planned pooling for For Yarn’s Sake on March 6. We’ll talk about planned pooling and assigned pooling. Come knit with me! Register here.

That same weekend I’m teaching Petite Brioche for Twisted (also Zoom). Saturday March 5. If you’d like a jump start into two color brioche in the round, this is it! Register here.

Okay, time to see if my charting made sense, and if my math works out!

I started a new design with the *real yarn* twice before resorting to a math swatch.

The first time you jump in without swatching, it’s understandable, especially if you’ve knit with this yarn and needle size before. I thought I had the undulating stitch pattern figured out. Not quite. So I started over.

There are four ways to arrange the two stitch patterns, and I need to pick two that will consistently look the same on the repeats.

I knit for quite a while before I realized that I still wasn’t going to get the symmetry I wanted. so I finally resorted to a math swatch. Yes, I just made up that term. I didn’t need to knit the motifs completely; I just needed to know if the motifs were going to stack consistently. That’s why this just looks like a jumble of kinky yarn (it was from a piece I had frogged after blocking).

I make the mistakes so you don’t have to!

I’m getting ready to go to Tacoma, Washington next week to teach at Red Alder Fiber Arts Retreat. There is still room in many classes, so if you’re up for some in-person fun, check it out here. Vaccinations and masks are required. I’ll have a trunk show and book signing with Northwest Yarns in the market; they’re carrying my book, Brioche Knit Love. I’ll confirm times (I think lunchtime Friday and late morning into lunch on Saturday?) and post. Looking forward to it!