Knitting Faithlessness: The New Yarn In My Life
No, these are not obscure cabbages of some sort.
This is Sublime Organic Cotton DK, and it is sublime. I swung around to the yarn store today and despite the fact that
- Older sister does not think this pale subdued pink will look nice on me
- Mom seems meh
- I do not, in fact, have enough money for all the yarn at this time and have only 3 skeins
I don’t care. Because this yarn is amazing.
The color is called Scrumble, for whatever obscure reason. The resulting fabric from 22 stitches per inch is fluid, silk and absolutely beautiful. The delicacy and amazing feel immeaditely made me want to put it next to my skin, but since knitted underwear isn’t my thing, I thought of a t-shirt.
Well, whaddya know? I fell in love with another (former) Magknits pattern, called Nothing But A T-Shirt, available from the designers blog. Here’s the problem. Although that pattern does use a DK weight yarn (for the non-knitters, that stands for double knitting and it is fairly thin yarn, think of standard twine) it’s knitted at 19 stitches per inch on size 8 needles. Well, I tried that. The resulting fabric was loose, yucky, and didn’t even reach that gauge.
However, I did a little math, and found that I’d have to cast on around 99 stitches at 5.5 stitches per inch (the ball band gauge) to knit the size 36 bust. Imagine my burst of clever glee when I realized that I could simply knit a bigger size in the t-shirt, but it will end up being a 36 bust anyway. Right?
So I’ve cast on for the ’40’ size.
What, you say? What of that other sweater? What sweater? I don’t even know what you’re talking about!
But somehow, as I am knitting with my pale pink yarn, my silky cotton yarn, I’m convinced that somehow…someway…I’m going to be punished.
The Lumpy Sweater 
Dava replied:
I know nothing of that other sweater…That Sublime seems lust worthy. If you start the NBaT do keep a constant eye on your gauge. I knit it up in a silk yarn I had (with the same loosy-goosy issues), but because I’m a lazy knitter, I didn’t pay attention. It turned out much too big. That said, it works up very nicely. There was a KAL for it, so I’m sure there are examples on Ravelry.
May 6, 2008 at 9:55 am. Permalink.
Jen replied:
Knitting polygamy is not to be avoided–it is to be embraced. Knitting love spread to many projects is not love subtracted, it is love multiplied!
But, in case Basic Black doesn’t understand, I won’t tell. (Secret lover, that’s what we are…)
It’s quite a nice little pattern–I’ve been looking for something along these lines. I think I’ll have to extrapolate the schematic out some to fit, but it’s doable. Along those lines, I’m glad you were able to figure out how to do the yarn substitution. Even if you hadn’t been able to figure out a specific size to follow, it is possible to use the schematic to personalize the pattern to your exact size and yarn choice, so long as you know your gauge. From there it’ll be one easy step to writing your own patterns! 😉
May 6, 2008 at 10:59 am. Permalink.
Michelle replied:
That yarn is beautiful and I love the pale pink. I’m so jealous!
I started “Nothing But A T-Shirt” a few years ago and never finished it. Perhaps I should start that over! You have inspired me!
May 6, 2008 at 12:40 pm. Permalink.
gorlitsaknits replied:
Oh, I love the yarn. Be careful working a larger version of the pattern. It might work width-wise, but check your vertical measurements as well. And if there is any shaping, you’ll want to re-calculate that as well. Let me know if you want help. I recalculated tomato to a finer gauge, and I think it’s fun getting to play with my pencil and calculator!
May 10, 2008 at 3:09 am. Permalink.
Chelsea replied:
Your picture looks so cool!! I love the title…very fitting for the yarn!!
lol, your LYS price tags look the same as my LYS tags…very random thought.
May 12, 2008 at 8:49 pm. Permalink.
Good Things Happen In Bundles « The Lumpy Sweater replied:
[…] I didn’t have all the money that I needed for the yarn for my Nothing But A T-Shirt, I bought 3 balls and LeAnne, my darling yarn-pusher, stuck the rest in a bag and has patiently […]
May 19, 2008 at 10:24 pm. Permalink.