323. A Great Big Swatch, or: Learning to Trust My Instincts

Oy. 

Some people got me scared. One person commented on my blog recently that she's been swatching this same yarn for a long time. She's been carrying it around in her purse, and fondling it for its lovely softness.  She also said, however, "It grows.  A lot," and linked me to her Flickr photo. Gulp.

But then I looked at the photo, and to me it appears that the swatch on the right has been pinned rather severely.  I assumed that if the yarn was just simply left to dry naturally, rather than pinned into the size it stretches into when wet, it would dry true to size. 

Still, it worried me. I'm knitting a nice sweater (I hope) from this yarn, and I'm investing a lot of time in a piece that I want to turn out well.

Then I was knitting on my sweater at Gale's gathering the other day, and someone asked me what the yarn was.  I told her (it's Jo Sharp Silkroad DK tweed in the color Boheme.), and I said, "It's just gorgeous! I love it!"  She said, "You're the first person I've heard who likes it."

Gulp.  Double gulp.

I ask her why.

She tells me she knew a woman who knit a sweater from it, the sweater came out gorgeous, she stopped by the shop for her to take a photo of it, then went to the movies.  Two hours later, according to the story, she comes back and says, "I want you to see this sweater."  It had grown several inches, she tells me.  She says it was misty at the time, and the sweater had gotten damp, and that that person had tried everything, even putting it in the dryer, and never could get that sweater back to its original size.  It kept on growing so it was the size of Texas by the end of the story. The person cut the sleeves off and reknit it, and it still kept growing.  It was The Story of the Incredible Growing Sweater, with a foreword by Stephen King. What a nightmare.

Well, I tell you.  I've been having issues with my blood pressure, and if that wouldn't drive it up, I don't know what would.

I wanted to just plain chuck that sweater and that yarn out the window.  All my effort and planning and careful knitting for naught?!

But my friend Terry is a master knitter, and she recently knit a sweater from this yarn.  I saw this sweater, admired it, and touched its gorgeousness.  I said to myself, "If there was something wrong with this yarn, Terry would have never knit anything in it."  I felt confident of that. I know she DID write that the fibers had relaxed a teeny bit after two solid days of wear.  But look how incredibly gorgeous that sweater was, after two days' wear at a fiber festival, no less. 

But that was only a little bit of comfort.  Why?  Because unlike me, I know Terry is an obsessive swatcher.  I know it was possible that Terry had swatched and reswatched that yarn, and washed that swatch and put it through its paces so she could do the math to make sure her finished garment, after being washed and worn, if it were going to stretch, would not stretch all OUT of shape, but INto shape.

I looked online for reviews of this yarn and came up with nothing. I found a glowing review of its sister yarn, Jo Sharp Aran Tweed, but not the DK weight.  And I certainly did not come up with any negative blog posts -- or really anything else, for that matter -- about this yarn. 

So I worried.  And I looked at my sweater on the needles.  And I worried some more.  And I knitted a bit more, and then I worried again.  And I said, "This is stupid. There's only one way to find out."

So I took it off the needles and put the live stitches onto a piece of kitchen cotton yarn. 

I measured it fresh off the needles, dry and smoothed out on my blocking tiles, but not stretched. I love my blocking tiles, by the way.  They have flocking on the surface that has just the right amount of grab, and they are a nice solid off-white.  I got them here.

It's a bit of a challenge to get a straight measurement of a piece knitted in the round and unblocked, so it appears to be on a bit of an angle, but I came up with 23.5 inches.  This is just slightly less than I'd like this sweater to be.  So far so good, then, because there is some stretching room, but not excessive bagginess.

I measured the length, smoothed out by my hands, but unblocked and unstretched:

12 inches.

I checked the knitting gauge.

20 stitches per 4 inches

30 rows per 4 inches. 

Exactly as per the ball band.

Then I took the piece and, following the washing instructions on the ball band, I put it in warm water with a nice squirt of Eucalan lavender, as I use for all my wool and silk knits.  I let it soak for half an hour.  Then, again as per the washing instructions, I rinsed it in cooler water.  I handled it gently, as I do all my knits. I spun it dry(ish) in my washing machine, and I took it back to the blocking tiles.  I laid it out and smoothed it gently, without stretching anything, as I would with any of my el primo knitwear (It's all el primo. I have great reverence for the knits -- especially the handknits.). 

The fabric looked gorgeous even wet, and I sensed that there was little, if any change, and that there would be minimal change in the measurements, but I measured it anyway.

23.75 inches wide and

12.5 (and a fraction) long. Virtually the same as when dry...well, very minimal change, anyway, and I expected that change to be even more minimal, or nonexistent, once it dried.

I let it dry without pinning or stretching it, and I measured it when dry. Absolutely perfect.  So soft, so lovely, and just the right gauge.  I think it will be a wonderfully wearable sweater, assuming I ever finish it.  It's now back on the needles and I am happily knitting away again.

Comments

[Kristen]

PHEW!!!

[Sarah]

I scrolled slowly and worried. Yay! Maybe chunks of my brain are worrying about the sweater I am knitting for my sister.

[Rachel]

Why didn't you ask Terry? :)

[Leslie]

Well, that was a hair raiser! I'm glad it worked out ok :)

I know the sweater I'm making will NOT be done in November - I just restarted the first front side. Maybe Christmas??

[sandy]

That is one long way to say "PHEW". Here's to the non growing sweater! xo

[Ann]

geesh, I'm exhausted just reading this! Norma, Oh, I am so sorry you went through all of this. Knit on and be happy. Did you finish Abigail's hat? Hope that went better than the poor sweater!

[Manise]

Phew here too! I have 10 balls of the exact same yarn , including colorway, sitting in my stash.

[Cheryl]

Good on ya for taking the time to do that! I'm afraid I would have plodded on, spent loads of time knitting it, finding it stretching to the equator and back and then chucking it into a cupboard for moth-bait. Here's to many happy wearings of it in future!

[Carole]

What a relief! I had to laugh about Terry's swatching. You described it perfectly.

[Lynn]

But what will happen when you wear the sweater? Will the weight of the yarn pull itself down? I assume you're planning on being upright at least occasionally while you're wearing the sweater, yes? Ask Terry if she pinned up her swatch with a little weighting on the bottom.

[Renee]

Oh boy, I'd be having a heart attack! Glad to hear your last swatch behaved itself.

[margene]

Smart grrl! I've heard the yarn is wonderful and Terry's sweater sure was nice. Maybe too many people knit that yarn at too large a gauge and it can't help but grow.

[Jean]

That was a nail biter. I almost drooled on Terry's sweater it was so beautiful.

[Elizabeth]

There's a review of the Silkroad DK at www.wiseneedle.com, but it didn't have anything particularly negative about yarn growth. A little complaint about splitting and underspun, but she was apparently knitting very tightly with it to make mittens.

[Elizabeth]

You're a daring woman Norma.

[AmyP]

Hmm... interestink ...

My fingers were crossed reading this blog post and I'm glad the experiment turned out in your favour.

[Ruth]

MAJOR phew on your behalf! (And on Manise's ... I sold her that yarn, and would be horrified to find I'd sold her a problem.)

[gale (she shoots sheep shots)]

Glad that had a happy ending- that is some beautiful knitting that you have going on.

[marianne]

On the Edge of my Seat! geeze louise. I was just in the lys and saw that yarn, picked up the blue skein and saying to myself (actually it was said out loud) "I bet this is Norma's colour" as I was turning the ball and looking for the colour and sure enough, Boheme. manOman, the colour is beyond gorgeous as is the yarn itself. Glad to hear your 'swatching party' came out alright. phbbt to the naysayers. :^) (but I'm also with Lynn and her comment. Ask Terry.)

[gayle]

So, you're writing suspense novels, now?
You had us all on the edge of our seats. Our collective gasp of relief at the end of the story probably contributed to Global Warming...
Glad it turned out okay!

[Helen]

Color me totally impressed.
Again.
Still.
I know I should do that.... at least with swatches.
I know I only sort of do, and never with a swatch big enough to test what happens when the garment HANGS...
J's sweater will be down to her knees now, I just know it.

[claudia]

You've done all that you can do.

[elizabeth]

That was a lot of work, but not as much work as knitting a sweater that you can't wear and having to reknit the whole thing. I'm so glad you did this because now I don't have to and I have a whole whack of this yarn in my stash!

[Jean E.]

Still gorgeous, even after blocking.

[Cheryl S.]

I was a little nervous at the start of your post, thinking about all that yarn in my stash. But sounds like it's going to be fine. I'm glad I'll get to benefit from your experience, though. Maybe it's like the Silky Wool. I could probably have stretched it out nearly 50% over the original dimensions and pinned it out while wet, but with just patting it into place gently and letting it dry, it had only a tiny amount of growth.

[Doris]

Well, that's a relief! I love those blocking tiles too. I thought they looked great when you posted about them before, and I sent the link to my son who got them for me for Christmas last year. They are great!

[kmkat]

The drama! The suspense! The story arc! The happy ending! You had me on the edge of my seat! (Well, I guess I have completely used up my allotment of exc!amation points for the year.)

[Seanna Lea]

It's good that you got that off your mind. Paranoia just isn't a fun state to be in.

[Cookie]

Yeesh!

That sweater owes you a drinkie for making you worry like that!

[--Deb]

I've made a sweater in the Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran and it DID grow. So much that I ended up tossing it in the dryer just to bring it back to something remotely resembling the size at which I'd knit it.

This after being careful to swatch--and WASH my swatch--and ending with a sweater that fit just right ... right up until the time I soaked it to block it. I'm glad that your experience is different, but it definitely did happen to me. Pity, too, because I really liked that sweater!)

Of course, no matter how careful I am, my swatches lie to me all the time...

[Teresa C]

Hey, yeah. Why didn't you ask me? Here is the deal with my sweater. It did grow a little bit and I am hoping that is all it will do. I did knit it at a pretty tight gauge because I was worried about it blooming and growing. It had so much a silk feel to it, and silk hasn't the memory that wool does. It can't hurt to knit the sweater a little short and block it to your size, or at least try that with a little swatch and see how it is.

[Morticcia]

Ack! Being the source of all the angst can make one very defensive. I guess I'll have to take my comfort from the fact I am not lone voice of swatch/sweater expansion here.

Each swatch was knit in thirds on size US3s, 4s, and 5s. The washed swatch was virtually uniform in gauge, regardless of needle size. I'm going to chalk up the differences to what someone else noted and that is that the yarn is a blend. The little I've learned from drama llama forum posts over at Ravelry is that each fiber could vary by 5% or more off label. Maybe my yarn has more or less of something that assists the stretch.

[Knitnana]

When I started reading, I thought - HUH? Problems with this yarn? Ok. I won't go there, if people had trouble, so be it.

But I didn't. I LOVE my shawl. Granted, it's a shawl and if it stretches, it wouldn't be the end of the world.

Except.

It's a Cheryl Oberle shawl. Which means it was HUGE to start with (Cheryl's 6' tall!) and I knit it exactly to pattern and I'm 5'2". I think, if stretching beyond gauge were a real problem? I'd be wrapped multiple times in the thing and I'm not!

So YAY!!! I'm so happy your sweater is going to be fine, b/c I LOVE Boheme in Silkroad DK and I just know it's going to be a sweater you love for a long long time!
(((Hugs)))

[Laurie]

Just one thought. And don't read further if you don't want to hear it.

Lily Chin says to hang the garment as you measure. Not when you dry it, but to measure it. Hang it and let it stay hanging for a bit, then measure it. Because those are the Forces of Gravity that will have their way with it.