I was talking with sweet Jennifer in Asheville this weekend about knitting, and life, and husbands. And knitting for husbands! The fun (and challenging) thing about knitting for my husband is that not being a knitter, he has no idea what I can and cannot do. He sees a knitted thing and says, "Can you make me that?" As is the case with Timberline. He saw it in my favorites on Ravelry and loved it. A richly cabled, seamed, shawl collared cardigan. Have I ever knitted a cardigan before? Nope. Have I ever picked up for a collar before? Nope. Have I ever knit a seamed sweater before? Nope. And yet, here we are, and I'm swatching for Timberline.
The swatch that I knit took me nearly an hour, so this baby is going to be a marathon! We chose Knit Picks Wool of the Andes for its huge color selection and affordability (and they answered all of my questions about where their wool comes from, which made my ethical side very happy). This color is "Opal Heather" and it has a lovely variegation and has been pretty easy to knit with. This pattern I took from the back chart, and should have probably knit the whole piece, you'll notice that its uneven as I omitted one of the side cables that frame the center cable. I started down a needle size from the recommended and still came out to 25 x 4" instead of 31 x 4". So I will be going down at least another needle size in a second swatch, if not 2 sizes. After listening to Julie Hoover's interview on Woolful on my roadtrip, I'm thinking it might have something to do with the material needles I'm using. I'm pretty dedicated to my Addi clicks, but maybe it's worth trying another material?
I still have a tumultuous relationship with swatching. I know I need to do it, and I for sure want the garments I knit to fit! But I sometimes just can't wait to get started and swatching for a piece like this takes much longer than I'd like. Any tips from master swatchers out there to help make this process any easier?