Fooled!

You may think I am referring to fooling you by posting again so soon, but it's more than that. I was fooled by my current knitting design project.

The first fooling came from the swatches.

Hopefully you can see my little knots, which remind me of what size needle I used to swatch the yarn. 

This is Queensland Collection Leche, which is a worsted weight blend of merino, microfiber, milk protein and silk. It is lovely, but it's too heavy for this project, a twin set with lace cardigan. 

Here's why.

I worked up all my numbers for nine sizes of a twin set using this yarn and worked the tank from the 5 sts to the inch Stockinette Stitch gauge that the swatch gave me. That went just fine. Then I did the same for the lace cardigan and its 5.5 sts per inch gauge and it came out four sizes larger than I intended. 

Darn!

That's the rotten type of fooling, the kind that makes you cuss and swear. I put the whole thing aside for a week or so while I got over being mad at it. With new resolve, I thought I would try a different worsted weight yarn but on smaller needles, a size six.

I really wanted this gun metal grey Cascade Sierra to work. But no! It came out a whole stitch looser, despite going down a needle size. I took another time out from the whole thing and worked on something more encouraging to get my nerve back up to figure out this whole mess.

After enough satisfying knitting and crocheting to settle my grouchiness, I decided to finish up the pink cardigan, because really it is so pretty. I searched my stash for buttons and ribbon to back the button bands. I found the perfect buttons, pearly seashell ones. However, despite my largish ribbon stash, the perfect specimen for the cardigan did not materialize. I expanded the search out and about to three different craft/sewing shops. My husband even joined in for one shop visit. No such luck. 

Then I decided to look in my stash one more time. You probably know what I'm about to say. There it was all the time--the perfect ribbon. I was fooled by my stash!

Even though I was fooled by my swatch and by my ribbon stash, I am filled with vigor to start anew. I will swatch these two lovelies and see who gets to be the twin set for real.

On the left is a 100% alpaca that boasts a 5.5 st-to-the-inch gauge on size 7 needles, and on the right is a cotton yarn that claims around 5-6 sts to the inch on size 5 or 6. I'll try it all! I won't be defeated!

Happy April Fool's Day to you. 

I hope you had some amusing pranks pulled on you, but not by your knitting project.