I just can’t get the September Sweater out of my mind. Last night I dipped into my stash and pulled out a ball of Cascade 220 (leftover from my first Tea Leaves) and a ball of Berroco Vintage (which I had laying around from my current blanket project), and I made a couple of good and proper swatches with them.
Usually I am pretty half-hearted about my swatching (if I even bother to do it at all), but I sucked it up and devoted my evening to it, because I really, really want this new sweater to be as wearable as its two predecessors.
Each swatch is 30 stitches x 30 rows, which gave me plenty of room in the middle for measuring.
And the verdict is? They’re the same!
Using a #7 circular needle, I get 5 stitches and 6 rows per inch on each type of yarn. Yay!
I notice a difference in the feel of the fabrics. Vintage feels softer and slightly more “drapey.” Neil says 220 feels more expensive (although, I’m not exactly sure what I’m supposed to do with that information).
I think now I can feel free to choose whichever yarn I want for this project. Vintage has the advantage of being machine washable, but 220 has the advantage of being tried-and-true for this particular pattern. Can you tell I am still on the fence?
And, oh! The Vintage colors! Paprika? Cork? Caramel? Or, dare I try Tang?
Or maybe I stick with 220 and choose from Provence? Burnt Orange? Tangerine Heather?
There may be such a thing as too much choice… If you need me, I’ll be in the corner looking at tiny online images of yarn and mumbling to myself.
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That was going to be the end of this post, but this afternoon, I hopped over to my LYS to see some yarn in person – reds and oranges are so hard to see properly on a computer screen, I think. Unfortunately, it didn’t help. In fact, I am starting to think the color I want doesn’t actually exist, and maybe I should just make a nice charcoal gray sweater. That’s where I’m leaning now.
I have plans sometime in the future, to make the Portulaca cardigan. That would look nice in a tweedy orangey-red. Perhaps I’ll delay the color angst until then… This kind of decision shouldn’t be so hard!
Oh, the color choice is so hard & if I want to start right away, it’s often restricted to what my LYS has enough of in the same dye lot 😉
I wish I found my LYS affordable, but I can do better online usually, and when I’m looking to make a sweater, every little discount helps! I tend to go local for one-skein projects 🙂
Oh Lisa! What a wonderful conundrum to have :). I would definitely go with the vintage though. You will be happy you did the first time you spill coffee/tea on yourself. Nice swatches BTW :).
I actually ended up going with the 100% wool. It came down to color choices, and I liked the Cascade colors better. This is probably a good time for me to learn how to properly wash woolens 🙂
I’m glad I’m not the only person to impatient to swatch on most occasions. I’m going to agree with Yvonne’s comment and say go with the vintage. You don’t want the lovely sweater you spent so much time knitting to become to “precious” for daily wear.
Or perhaps you prefer a special occasion sweater?
I think I’d have a hard time bringing myself to knit something for a month and only wear it on special occasions 🙂 My last two favorite sweaters are wool, and they’ve been fine (although I admit I haven’t tried to wash them yet… time to learn how to do it right!)
Thanks for showing the comparison of the two yarns. I have as yet knitted with Cascade but am sure I will at some point in the future. I can wait to see the color that you have choosen.
I’ll give you a hint: it’s somewhere between “paprika” and “cinnamon” 🙂 I’ll blog about it soon, I’m sure!
[…] to start. You might have had your suspicions confirmed when I posted a second time on the topic, this time with swatches. Well, let today’s post put any of your doubts to rest – I am well and truly obsessed […]