The Knitting Fiend

I'm planning to design and knit a shrug using this beautiful yarn I was given by Mom's friend Jill. Jill has terrific taste, and always bought beautiful yarn, so I'm thrilled to et her stash.

However, since she sometimes bought yarn from hand spinners, the labels can be rather vague.

In this particular case, there is no label. I have no idea what fiber this yarn is. It looks like silk or cotton; Sonja of Fusion Knitting suggested I perform a burn test, and I intend to ... tomorrow. Although, honestly, it doesn't matter that much what the fiber is. What matters is this: it's beautiful!

Now, I know normal people buy yarn with labels. They generally have some idea whether or not the yarn is going to shrink, or for that matter, whether or not it can be washed. Or, more often, they knit from a pattern and count on the designer accounting for shrinkage when charting the pattern. Obviously, since I design my own stuff and knit from mystery yarn, I need to check for shrinkage. So, I'm also going to knit a swatch and hand wash it. That way I can see if the yarn shrinks or curls up and dies when I wash it.

I'll chart the shrug based on the gauge after laundering. Or course, if it doesn't shrink, that's the same gauge as before laundering!

So, here's how I'm going to knit the swatch, check whether or not it shrinks and calculate the correct gauge to use when I design my shrug.

• estimate how many stitches I need to cast on to create a 4" wide swatch, then add 4 stitches to that number.
• cast on, knit 3 rows in garter stitch.
• change to stockinette, but knit the two edge stitches on both sides in garter stitch; knit until the stockinette portion is 4" tall, change to garter stitch, and knit 3 rows and then bind off. The swatch will be similar to the one show to the left.
• count the number of rows and measure the length knit in stockinette. Count the stitches and measure the width knit in stockinette. Record these as "before laundering" measurements.
• launder my swatch as I plan to launder the garment; in this case, I'm planning to hand wash. Measure the length and width again. Compare these to the previous measurements.
• I'll enter data in the table below. (Actually, I'll just change the values in the boxes to match my swatch data. I entered some so the table wouldn't be empty in advance. )

Guess what? You can use this program to determine your stitch and row gauge too! I always wash my swatches, but if you are confident your yarn doesn't shrink, just pretend you washed it and it didn't shrink. (Then, hope you guessed right and it doesn't shrink.)

Tomorrow, I'm going to work on designing the shrug and begin writting the generator. Of course, now that I've mastered posting pattern generators here at the blog, I won't have to place the generator outside the blog. Yippee! the program will run here instead of at the main site.

Oh, I think I've "mastered" writing these programs here. Let me know if this program does or doesn't work for you, and wish me luck getting the shrug one running.