I definitely recommend Brooks Farm Yarn. No question about it.

If you’re going to MDS&W this weekend and you see their booth, by all means, run don’t walk over there. (Though, please, try not to run over any small children. I’d hate to feel responsible.)

Obviously, here’s my shawl, pinned out to the guest room bed. (The points don’t quite fit–they’re curved over the edge.) In an interesting little bit of serendipity, I had exactly the right number of T-pins in my container. Not one too few or one too many. Exactly what I needed. (I do have other pins, but that would have required getting another container. How lucky is it for it to come out just right?)

And, here’s a close-up of the edging, properly pinned out this time. I love how the color variations give the edging an alternate, vertical “stripe.”

I can’t tell you how happy I am with the way this came out! How delighted I am that I splurged on this yarn. It was worth absolutely every penny. It’s incredibly soft; the colors are amazing and the two rather different colors I picked blended so well together. The closest thing I have to a complaint is that it sheds, but well, it’s mostly mohair. Of course it’s going to shed at least a little. I can’t wait intil it’s dry and I can try it on.

I made a swatch for Alison’s NbaT and miraculously came up with 4″ exactly with my 19 stitches. On my first try. That’s practically unheard of! The pattern calls for a US size 8 needle, and I used a size 6, knowing that I knit loosely and that the 8 would be nowhere near what I needed. I’m being SO good, though, because I’m actually washing the swatch so I can verify the actual, real gauge for later on.

  This is a rare, rare step for me. Usually I’m so anxious to get into the actual knitting, I just skim past the swatch process as quickly as possible. That is, until I knitted my last sweater, and when I washed it for blocking, it streeeeetttccccchhhhhhhheeeeeeeed. Badly. I ended up putting the poor thing in the dryer to shrink/felt it enough to be able to wear it. It had fit pretty much perfectly right off the needles, and I found out later that the yarn (Jo Sharp’s Silkroad Aran) was notorious for expanding. I’ve never had such a drastic difference before, but I don’t want it to happen again, and so, I’m washing this swatch.

That said, it’s still nothing like the nice, large, formal swatches I see on some other blogs. I frankly don’t worry too much about row gauge, except around armholes and necklines. All I really want to confirm is that the width of my knitted garment is going to be the size I need it to be. Length, I can handle as I go.

You know, I’d forgotten how much I liked using Rowan’s Calmer! A cotton yarn with stretch, a real delight to work with. Not only that, as I was watching my swatch, I was thinking what a great washcloth it would make . . . well, if I have extra, I guess I know what I’ll do with it!

Edited to add: I measured my now-dry Calmer swatch at lunch time, and it’s grown. What was exactly 4 inches is now 4 and a quarter. How weird is that!

For those of you not Maryland-bound this weekend, we need to stick together! Julia and Margene had a great idea. Why should the festivizing people have all the fun? We can have a nice, internet part of our own!

• Tags: Finished Knitting, General, Knitting/Spinning • Permalink:Brooks Farm Rules! //