Swatching For Sanity

Most people (including myself) do swatches only out of basic necessity. I never thought I would see the day that I did a swatch to save my sanity. I've looked at lace and looked at lace and looked at more lace this weekend, until I really needed a serious break. But. Since there is a big deadline looming on the lacework, I could only take a small break, thus, the swatch.

I'm swatching for this tank top: W, by Kristi Porter. For the yarn, I decided to try Debbie Mumm Traditions. I've heard horror stories about this yarn. It is a core spun yarn with black as the core fiber. I'm not sure about the core fiber, it could be cotton.

So here's my review of this yarn so far. There are many complaints out there about the outside of the yarn bunching up and exposing the core fiber. I haven't seen it yet. This could be a complaint of tight knitters. I was very careful to keep a loose but comfy tension while I was knitting.



I do think though, that this will pill very easily. If you enlarge the above pic, you can see a bunch of fuzzies showing up already.

Look at the pic below. Aren't the colors fabulous?

It has long color runs similar to Noro, but it's waaaayyyy softer to the touch. So far I like it. I'm going to throw the swatch in the washer just for fun. The yarn is 75% acrylic, 23% wool and 2% "other fiber". I got gauge and now I want to experiment wit it some more. So, now, it's off to the washer and dryer. I'll report on it after it's done.

I'm also going to measure how long the color runs are and also the length of the transitions are between the runs. I would like to make a lizard ridge blanket, but I hate the feel of Noro. I want to spin my own Noro-esque yarns for the afghan. My problem is (and why I haven't done it yet), a certain little monkey stole my tape measure, or, as he calls it, the "push-it" (for the little button on the side that makes it draw up.) I'm going to have to turn the house upside down to find the "push-it".

Which monkey you ask? The monkey with the red blanket below. Look what they did to the couch cover, pillows and living room.

Monkey see, Monkey do.