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    « 322. Gale Does Montpelier with The "Famous" (Exaggerated Air Quotes) Blogger | Main | 324. New White Hat -- Stat! »

    Wednesday, November 19, 2008

    Comments

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    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.

    The comments to this entry are closed.

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