Like The Queen
Whatever happens to strike my fancy, but surely some sort of fiber content.

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Wednesday, November 16, 2005  

It’s turning out that my NBP body will be the biggest swatch I have ever felt compelled to knit. I just can’t decide how to measure it - and really, now I come to write it down, I ought not be surprised. Lace is notoriously difficult to measure until it’s blocked - so.....

I shall finish out the second set of 14 rows, begin st. st. on the first 44 stitches, put a garter stitch and eyelet edging on the second 44 stitches and knit an inch or so, then take it off the needles, wet block it and pin it out. Only then will I take the measurements of this fabric, because only then will I be able to decide on numbers for the real sweater.

When I cast on this edging it was so wide and so stretchy it looked to fill up the whole 24 inches of Addi Turbo. A quick recalculation made me decide to knit only 4 patterns. This seemed very wide still, until I began knitting the second series of rows - when suddenly it seemed not just skimpy - but maybe - too small!!!! When I flatten it out it looks big enough but who can really tell unless it’s blocked. So - I have made an attitude adjustment, christened this collection of knit and purl stitches a SWATCH and am content to truly experiment away. I just keep whispering to myself "Debora Newton, Kristen Nichols, Nicky Epsteiiiiiin." They do a lot of swatch knitting too.

And now that I am just knitting a swatch - I can cast it aside and knit something else, like a real NBP sweater body and Begin Again! As I work with this yarn I grow even more satisfied with it’s odd color. It changes on me depending on the light I’m in, growing more olive or more gold with the varied refraction of the rays. It’s a sweet soft yarn to knit with, what I would consider a next-0-skin yarn, so imagine my surprise when two knitters I know told me it was to scratchy to wear as anything but outerwear! Well - sensitivity is relativity - thank goodness I am made of coarser stuff. I wouldn’t give up the joy of wool for a kingdom!

Tonight is finally the last night of my beginner knitter class. This whole fall has been crazy with stuff; health stuff, death stuff, election stuff, and it all impacted one or the other of us. It’s turned out that my 4 week class has been spread out over 9 weeks. Happily, we are all very comfortable with this - my students, because they feel free to rip and re-knit for perfection’s sake (something I never encourage, but do not discourage either) and me, because they are having such a good time it hardly matters when we get together. But this will wind up the official class. They had asked for another class - or more classes - but we’re getting awfully close to Holiday Time. We’ll discuss it all tonight - and maybe I can shuffle them over to Tuesdays.
So - a fiberly week satisfyingly packed with both learning and teaching. Pretty good for a fiber blog, hmmm?

posted by Bess | 7:27 AM
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