The Knitting Fiend

I’m swatching to knit raglan cardigan. I was going knit it top down, but I really don’t enjoy that, so it’s bottom up again!

I want this to be a rough and tumble sweater I can wear when Jim and I watch the Kane County Cougars baseball games, or hang out at the Arboretum. So, I decided to spare no expense: I shelled out $20 for 2 lbs of Lion Brand Kitchen Cotton at Joanne Fabrics; that price includes tax. I picked white; if I spill mustard, salsa or red wine on this, I’ll bleach the stains out. Looking at the swatch, it’s obvious I’ll need to dampen and press it to make it flat!

I have to admit, when I bought the yarn, I had absolutely no idea how it would knit up. Should I knit a pretty lace pattern using 1 strand? Or double stranded to make a chunky cardigan for cool spring evenings? Will the cotton be easy to work?

I knit two and a half swatches to decide. The stitch I picked for the half swatch was so hard to work I unraveled. Why was it difficult? Well, the pattern required me to k2 tog when stitches presented themselves as purl. This would be easy in wool, which is elastic. But, it was uncomfortable in the stiff cotton. Oh, it could be done, but it wasn’t fun. So, why bother?

I did come up with two candidate stitches based, and knit swatches. One’s “Slip Stitch Mesh”; the other is stockinette. After knitting, I measured each and recorded their dimensions, and then I threw them in the washing machine on hot. I tumbled them until they were completely dry. Bone dry, I tell you!

Now, I know some people baby cotton to avoid shrinking. I’m a card carrying member of the “treat the swatch roughly” camp. I believe in shrinking cotton immediately after knitting the swatch, and later, after knitting the garment. I find, cotton shrinks during the first wash, but then stops shrinking. In contrast, if I baby the cotton, I often find it shrinks a teensy bit after the first wash. Then a bit more after the second. It keeps on shrinking until the 20th wash or so, when it finally reaches the size it would have shrunk to in the first place. I think that’s a pain in the neck.

By treating washing the swatch, I also find out if this treatment harms the cotton. If it does, I can then decide if the yarn is beautiful enough to make a garment I have to baby. Needless to say, I didn’t expect washing would hurt a yarn called “Kitchen Cotton”! And it didn’t. The stockinette shrunk about 20% in length, not at all in width. The mesh didn’t shrink! (That surprised me.)

After washing, the fabric looks nice, soft and “cottony”. Yes, this will be perfect for a “Wear to the ball game ” sweater.

Now, I suspect you are curious about the slip stitch mesh.
Slip Stitch Mesh ¹.
Knit on US size 5 needles using 1 strand of cotton. The pattern is worked over an even number of stitches as follows:

• Row 1: Purl.
• Row 2: Knit.
• Row 3: K2, *sl 1 wyib, k2; rep from *.
• Row 4: *K1, sl 1 wyif; rep from *, end k2.
• Row 5: K1, * yo, k2 tog; rep from *, end k1.
• Row 6: Purl.

The slip stitch mesh pattern is fairly easy to work, and looks nice. I think it would make a nice scarf or shawl, but I don’t a cardigan with holes nearly 1/2″ tall. That’s how large they are when knit in worsted weight cotton. So, I knit a stockinette swatch using two strands of cotton and US size 9 needles.

I’m going to knit the sweater in stockinette². So, this will be a chunky white cardigan to wear on cool spring evenings. I’ll have to figure out some decorative increases to dress this sweater up. Or maybe cables at the shaping lines?

Any suggestions?
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(1) Barbara Walker “Treasury of Knitting Patterns”, page 156
(2) Also spelled stockinet. For the search engines, I notice ’stokinette’ and ’stokinet’ in my search engine results!