Sometimes I get cocky and forget that I’ve only really been knitting for less than a year. And with that, I forget that each new knitting project I pick up teaches me something new.
Cables aren’t new, I learned cables with my Hermione sweater. But the blackberry stitch was new. And the idea of alternating skeins when working with hand-dyed yarns. And (I feel sort of stupid about this one) the importance of gauge. That was new too.
I’m not exactly sure how I’ve been getting away with it, but up until now I’ve never knitted a swatch, nor have I ever consistently checked my gauge on a project. I would pretty much just buy the correct weight of yarn and use the recommended needle size and run with it.
When you spend $19.20 per skein though, it’s a little hard to just “run with” anything. When I had gotten to about the eighth row, I checked my gauge and realized I was knitting waaay too loosely and was going to end up with a behemoth sweater. So I ripped it and now I’m checking like a maniac every few rows and for once my gauge is perfect.
My only question is, how the hell is anyone getting gauge on this sweater with size 7 needles?? I’m knitting super tightly on size 5’s and it’s perfect. I could probably even go down to a size 4 and knit normally.
In other news, I really love this pattern. And this yarn. And the color.
*drool*