A few weeks ago I was playing with Jameson with the Webs podcast playing in the background. I wasn’t paying too much attention, but I really perked up when Steve mentioned a new yarn that was a cotton/bamboo/linen/acrylic blend. I have been looking for something using those three plant fibers for months — it’s the perfect Tucson yarn!
I couldn’t find the yarn on their website, so I asked around on Ravelry, and we quickly found it: Elsebeth Lavold Bamboucle. I knew that my LYS carries Elsebeth Lavold yarns, so I called Lynn and she offered to order that yarn for me. I got 15 balls of the soft grey color, and it arrived within two weeks.
The yarn is an unusual texture, but it’s really growing on me. I spent Monday night at Knit Night swatching with various lace patterns, but wasn’t thrilled with any of them. Finally I realized that I was trying to design a sweater that I’d already seen before. I’ve been wanting to make the Dollar and a Half Cardigan for about a year now. I had original thought I would use CotLin, but this new yarn is just perfect.
I measured gauge on my swatch — 17 stitches on size 6 needles and 19 stitches on size 5 needles. The pattern calls for 21 stitches over 4 inches in the lace pattern, so I went down to size fours. I worked a provesional cast on so that I could start the sleeve in the lace pattern, and if it worked, add the 4 inches of ribbing later.
Last night we dropped the baby off with grandma and went to a friends house for dinner. Since Jameson was particularly fussy yesterday (reacting to his MMR shots), my husband saw to it that I was kept out of the kitchen. And so I sat and knit while sipping on a very good margarita. I checked gauge, but was way off. It was looking like I would need to go up to at least a size 6, but I knew that would make my stockinette gauge was off. I really want to avoid the “Michelin Man” effect on the sleeves, so I was very unsure what to do.
Rather than making a rash decision with that much tequila in me, I just turned the thing over and worked on the ribbing until dinner was over. I’m glad I did, since it occurred to me this morning that I need to do something I have never done before — block to size!
The lace is blocked to 9.75″, and it looks good. I’ll see how I acts when it dries. Now I have to make a decision about how to proceed. I can easily finish up the ribbing and work a sewn bind off, which will make a very nice edging, and I don’t mind doing the same thing for the other sleeve. But there is no way I want to do a sewn bind off for the body pieces. I’ll need to find a cast-on that will at least look similar to the sewn bind off.
