Doing Homework

Every once in a while you learn a lesson through experience that you wish you could learn by common sense and being observant.  I recently learned that lesson.

I have had the sweater Sprossling by Knitspot in my queue for quite some time and this spring I have really been itching to start it.  Spinning Yarns, one of my LYS, posted on Facebook that they had just gotten in a box from Madelinetosh in a couple bases including their Tosh Merino Light.  I thought it would be a pretty good match, so off I went to buy some.  I was able to get 4 beautifully matched skeins in Tart. It's a gorgeous color!

Now, this is where the common sense should have kicked in.  This yarn is actually thinner than most of the yarns I use to knit socks with.  On size 1 or 2 needles.  Did I REALLY think that this yarn would knit a fabric on size 5 needles, that I would be happy with for a sweater? Really???

Turns out the answer is no, not really.  In fact I pretty much hated it when I knit my swatch.  So much so that I didn't even take a picture of it before I ripped it back.

So I decided I had better go about this choosing yarn for this sweater task a different way.  I went to my leftover bin and picked out a few different fingering yarns and started swatching. 

These 2 swatches are Dream in Color Starry on size 4 and 5 needles.

These swatches from left to right are Hazel Knits Artisan Sock, Sanguine Gryphon Skinny Bugga, and Handmaiden Casbah.

They all gave a much nicer fabric, or at least more what I had expected.  My favorites, honestly, were the Skinny Bugga and the Casbah, but the cashmere content in the yarns would make this a pricey sweater. I would also have to mail order them as I don't have a local source for them.  I also want to make Henley with a Twist, which I expect I will wear against my skin, so a luxury yarn would be a better choice for that sweater.

In the end, I decided on Dream in Color Smooshy.  I was able to exchange 3 of the Tosh Merino Light skeins for the Smooshy.  I'm happy with outcome and love the In Vino Veritas color I was able to get.

I cast on last week!  I think this is going to be a great light weight sweater that I can wear year round.

I'm hoping to have it done in time for Sock Summit!