Dawn Brocco's Life & Design Blog

Ongoing Design Adjustments

I did no work these past 3 days, unless one counts the cogitating about the cape design and some swatching, and I don't count it. What I spread out over 3 days coulda been done in a few hours, so it doesn't count!

The yarn choice for the cape has been altered, once again. 2 strands of the Beaverslide 2-ply would have necessitated 14 hanks of yarn - way past my budget, and many others' budgets as well, I'm sure.

So, I thought of Lopi - thick, light, very warm, great for outerwear, and oh, so reasonable in price, and they have a great Fire Tweed red color. Problem? I'm not so sure about using such a rustic wool, even in outerwear.

Using rustic wools can be the kiss of death for a design, and HAS been for me. Do I want to risk it? So I'm leery, naturally, about spending twice the amount of time it's gonna take to knit a cape, than it would take to knit a sweater, then do the pattern, only to have the design struggle in sales.

Originally, I was considering Peace Fleece. Rustic, but it softens up nicely. Not as thick as Lopi or the doubled worsted wt yarn, nice tweeds, though not the red, sea blue or grey tweed I would have preferred, but still, the swatches came out SO nice in the stitch pattern. One can't ignore that! The price is good, and availability is wide enough, either from PF directly or from other shops.

Here's the last swatch I made, in Samantha-Katya Pink, which isn't pink at all, but a red wine heather. The increases move into pattern nicely. The pattern lies flat and doesn't curl.



The stitch pattern was a fluke. I was considering 2 patterns in Barbara Walker's treasuries, both 2 row patterns = easy, yet still interesting enough to do for such a large expanse of fabric, and had written down underneath one of the patts, the adjusted row 2 directions, for working it in the round.

When I made the flat swatch, though, I mistakenly followed these circular row 2 directions and came upon this variation, which is nothing like the original 2-row pattern. I'm sure this *new* stitch pattern is listed/shown *somewhere*, as it's too simple NOT to be, but it wasn't in BW's first 2 treasuries, that I could see.

It ends up being a mix of slip stitch and garter stitch. so I could use US size 10 (6 mm) ndls with the Peace Fleece and still make a good fabric. I would ordinarily use size 8 (5 mm) ndls.

So, today, I need to run the #'s and see how much yarn it'll need in the Peace Fleece.

Fog

I love fog, always have, and we don't nearly get it often enough here, as this isn't exactly the coast! The other day, we had an on-again-off-again foggy day and my brain was in gear enough to know to take some pics, looking towards the pond:







Onward.