OK, I just checked, and you haven't seen any knitting content from me since March 18, when I finished my Cablenet socks! What have I been doing with myself? Well in addition to working on my Hana sweater (which is very slow going and 3 inches on the body of a sweater --just under the armpits-- doesn't look like much), I've been swatching!
Here's some of what I've been doing.
I'm planning on making a very open-knit sweater out of this yarn. It's Artfibers (love this store) Ming in color #11. My friend C was sweet and brought me back a ball when she visited San Francisco last year, and I bought a few more when I was there in December.
I started out with a lace pattern from Barbara Walker's Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns (I don't have the book with me and I'll edit to add the pattern name later Starlight Lace). Although I don't think this looks bad, it seemed to be a little too fiddly to get these results. This yarn is so pretty on its own that it doesn't really need something this complicated.
I liked this a lot better. It's inspired by the Clapotis, of course. It was pretty simple to drop the stitches down, and I cast on two stitches above the dropped stitch to preserve the open space. Although it now seems clear that I should have done something at the bottom to account for this as well. The top is significantly wider than the bottom (I stretched the bottom out to look good in this picture). Also, the stitches that weren't dropped seemed a little too big and sloppy looking for my taste.
This seems to be what I want. It's knit on size 6 needles instead of 9s, so the stitches look much more tidy. I also cast on enough to account for 2 stitches per gap (more on this below), so I ended up with a rectangular piece of fabric. This is what I did:
Cast on 38 stitches (multiple of 4 + 2 sts)
Row 1: Knit
Row 2: [WS] Knit
Row 3: K1 (k2tog yo ssk) 9 times, end k1 -- 29 stitches total
Row 4: [WS] (p2, k1) across the row, end p2 (you will be knitting into the yo's)
Row 5: (k2, p1) across the row, end k2
Repeat rows 4 and 5 until it's long enough -- lets say 20 rows. End with row 4.
Row 27: (K2, drop the purl stitches down until the yarn over, cast on 2 stitches using the backwards loop method) repeat until the end of the row, end k2. 38 stitches total.
Row 28: Knit all stitches
Row 29: Knit all stitches
The next step is to measure my "inspiration piece" to figure out the dimensions of my new sweater!
ETA: Sorry if this shows up on my newer subscribers' blogrolls. I kept getting some weird hits from Google Image searches, and I've decided to change the image name to avoid that.
Love the swatches. Can't wait to see your project progressing.
Posted by: tiennie | March 27, 2007 at 05:18 PM
Oh, that yarn is beautiful! I like the stitch pattern you have chosen. Excited to see the next step!
Posted by: Brenda | March 27, 2007 at 07:11 PM
I believe 'wanna see a swatch' is traditionally followed by the phrase 'I'll show you mine, if you'll show me yours.'
Posted by: Ariel | March 27, 2007 at 08:25 PM
Beautiful swatches! I really like the first one but I also appreciate the graphic simplicity of the last one. I'm lusting for that yarn, too, now.
Posted by: Jean | March 27, 2007 at 11:38 PM
Interesting. I think no matter what you do, that is going to be one beautiful sweater. The yarn is so pretty!
Posted by: Jessica | March 28, 2007 at 09:29 AM
very nice! i love seeing the progression (it's rather comforting to see that others go through the same process that i do)
do you have any ideas yet on what the styling of the sweater will look like?
Posted by: jody | March 28, 2007 at 10:14 AM
very pretty! can you post the pattern for the first swatch too? i agree it's too complicated for the gorgeous yarn you're using, but just perfect for something i had in mind for myself!!
Posted by: Sara Payne | March 28, 2007 at 11:24 AM
The yarn is beautiful - are the colours that dark in real life? If so, I'm sold!
Posted by: Nora | March 28, 2007 at 12:06 PM