Sounds like Swatch

Last week I caught up with Michelle, Elizabeth, and Mary. 

 Michelle is back and sharing her winter projects.  She discovered a lovely baby blanket pattern, Gacoco.  Her yarn of choice, Cascade 220 Superwash Sport (DK/Sport: 100% Superwash Merino, 136 yards); 7 skeins.  The picture above is of the blanket blocked.

This is a picture of the blanket in progress.  It blocks out beautifully!

She's been knitting Boxy with Rowan Panama (Fingering: 55% Rayon, 33% Cotton, 12% Linen, 148 yards).  Funny thing about Boxy, the designer gives the option for knitting it flat or in the round.  Michelle opted for in the round.  Now her gauge differs dramatically (on the same needle) from flat to circular.

Unfortunately for Michelle, she did a serious amount of knitting before she realized she was on the wrong needle which made her (already oversized) garment, ginormous.  That was not a happy knitting day.  She ripped it out and reknit it.

Check out the upper part of this piece of knitting. See how it slants to the right and has more defined ridges?  Michelle didn't insert a new stitch, the yarn randomly started doing that.  She's knitting Suit  with Cascade Ultra Pima (DK: 100% Cotton, 220 yards).  She ripped the same section out several times and it kept happening.  While at Stitch and Chat she tried the section with a new skein.  Voila!  Problem solved.  It was very random.  Ultra Pima is one of my favorite yarns and this has never happened before.

Elizabeth is swatching for this awesome sweater, Rosalia.  The bottom half of the swatch was a #4 needle, above the straight line she tried a #5 needle.  Her gauge was still really tight.  She's going to tried a #7 next. 

Mary swatched for the Blue Sky Alpacas Bulky Baby Hat.  She swatched with Purl Soho Supersoft Merino.

One week later....

Mary finished the hat and it is adorable!  She just has to make a pom-pom for the top.  The hat reminds me of the Who's in Dr. Suess' Whoville.

She swatched in the wrong direction for a Baby Basket Hat in Berroco Comfort Worsted (50% Nylon (Polyamide) 50% Acrylic, 210 yards).  The pattern calls for a gauge of 5 sts to the inch.  She was getting 4.5 sts to the inch.  Instead of going down needle sizes, she went up.  It always seems counter-intuitive, 5 is a larger number - so go up a needle size.  When really its going down a needle size, to fit a larger number of sts into an inch.

This is the beginning of the Kersti Baby Cardigan.  This yarn knits up beautifully, Koigu Kersti Merino Crepe (DK: 100% Merino, 114 yards).  She started the cardigan as her swatch, it's so small, why not?  Phyllis, a newcomer to Stitch and Chat (Welcome!), suggested Mary knit a 9 month size, that knitting smaller just didn't make sense.  Wise words.  Mary is going to go down a needle size and up a pattern size.   

Mary is knitting the Purl Bee Super Easy Baby Blanket. It really doesn't get much easier than a garter stitch blanket.  Combine that with ombre colors of Purl Soho Supersoft Merino (Bulky: 100% Merino, 87 yards), and you have a very special gift. 

Phyllis came to Stitch and Chat for the first time today.  She's knitting the Autumn in Taos Coat.   The coat is made up of mitered squares.  She's using yarns from her stash that are working together beautifully.  That's the benefit of being consistent with the colors you like.

She wanted to learn a different method of weaving in your ends as you knit.  It's different than carrying the yarn over like you do in Intarsia.  I found a youtube video for it and we tried it out.

Our conclusion was that it was neater than other methods we had tried but not any more secure than sewing them in one direction and then snaking backwards. Check out the video and make your draw your own conclusions.  What's your favorite way to weave in ends?

Linda was nearing the end of her Rectangular Poncho knit with Berroco Folio (DK: 65% Alpaca, 35% Rayon, 219 yards).  This yarn is got a great feel to it and her stitches looked perfect.  That is except for a mistake she discovered near the end the poncho. 

She pulled up her "big girl pants" and ripped it back, then she was going to put the stitches back on herself.  I'm proud of her for giving it a go.  I think she would have succeeded to if it weren't for a couple of hindrances, namely her dogs.  One on her lap and one over her shoulder - they may have been trying to cheer her on.  That combined with an easy chair did not add up to a successful fix.  She had the aha! moment at Westport Yarns the next day when Julie sat at a table to fix it.  What is it they say?  Location, location, location.

I look forward to seeing Linda in her poncho soon, she's only a couple of inches from finishing.