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I mentioned in my last post that I’d been wanting to do something with this yarn for quite a while now:
I have 700g of this lovely 12 ply (chunky) core spun New Zealand merino yarn from Happy Go Knitty. It’s a single spun yarn with a nylon thread core for strength. At first, I wanted to knit a tunic-style dress with it – I could imagine myself cocooned in a beautiful snuggly layer of chunky yarn. In a fresh, springlike green, it would chase away the winter blues! However, as I started knitting with it, I began to worry whether I would have enough yarn. You can tell when you go through half a ball just on the welt alone… darn it!
A few days ago I happened to be visiting Drops’ website to view the latest patterns coming on line. This number caught my eye. I actually do have some Eskimo in my stash, so I got it out and did a quick swatch. As I was doing that, it occurred to me that Eskimo and the 12 ply core spun had the same weight… tick, tick, hmm, let me see…
I ripped out the ribbing for the dress, and this took its place in extremely quick time (you’ve got to love how quickly chunky yarn knits up!) This pattern is much better suited to the yarn. Chunky yarn of this weight might have ended up being too heavy in a dress in any event.
This yarn is an interesting exercise in gauge. I don’t normally knit with chunky yarn, and I was concerned about using such large needles – surely 10mm would be too big??? The swatch looked awfully loose! However, I decided to trust the pattern and as I knitted, it became apparent that I could use the larger needles – the yarn in a larger block of knitting came together beautifully, and in fact, I’m wondering if I shouldn’t actually be using a size larger needle!
The interesting thing is that although the gauge swatch was spot on, the garment gauge is coming in smaller. Which means that the sweater is going to be narrower than it is meant to be, and in fact, it’s quite “fitting”. So as I knit, I’m beginning to think… do I rip this out and start again with more stitches or use a larger needle?? Or do I just knit a fitted sweater for a change?
I pulled out my existing sweaters and measured this WIP against them. It’s knitted in the round, so there is the ability to try it on as well – it’s not too small. Definitely narrower than my baggy sweaters, but still wider than the fitting ones… so it will fit, but it won’t be roomy. I’m going to ‘go with it’ and stay with the size that it is for now. Hopefully I won’t regret that decision!
