I'm a bit late on the upload, but I spent my Memorial Day last weekend making my swatches. The purpose of this was to control for the variables that come with making fabric by hand (so that I don't end up with something that doesn't fit). There are essentially two variables I'm working with: the final look and feel of the spun yarn itself and the "gauge" (or size) of the final knitted piece. Most knitting patterns come with a gauge, usually given in the form of a certain number of stitches and rows per inch (the lace piece is slightly different, as you will see in the photo below). I can alter the gauge easily by changing my knitting needle size.
It may look like I've used two separate yarns for these swatches, but I actually used a slick technique called
Navajo 3-ply knitting to make the top swatch out of the same yarn as the bottom one. It basically turns a fine laceweight yarn into a heavier worsted weight, which is more appropriate for the top half of the dress. This way I don't have to worry about making two separate yarns and can just spin everything the same.
Now comes the first long leg of the process: spinning the couple thousand yards or so that I'll need. I'll be posting pictures of the progress.
(Technical mumbo-jumbo section for my own reference)
- Spun singles 17:1 and plied 15:1 in double-drive on high-speed bobbins.
- Worsted draft, drafting length 2-3 inches.
- Final plied yarn is 8 tpi, slightly overspun before washing.
- Knitted top piece on size 6 needles and bottom piece on size 2. Size 2 is good for lace (especially since I knit a little bit looser in the round), I should probably go down to a size 5 or 4 for the top half.
- Yarn appeared to be balanced after washing when in the hank, but still had a bit of extra twist during the knitting process. This is good as it will be washed again after knitting.
