I know, I know. This was not one of any of the designs from the new IK that I said I liked. However, my previous caveat stands, and once I got the issue I fell in love with the sweater (I'd get rid of some of the bobbles though). I've been in a cable mood lately. I even bought enough Kathmandu Aran from WEBS (it is on sale!) to make Demi, from Rowan Vintage Knits. Anyway, back to the task at hand...
I swatched for it with some Jo Sharp silkroad tweed dk (colour autumn, if you're interested). I didn't want it to work, really. It is the wrong gauge - so very off, but it is wonderful, wonderful yarn. The colour is even perfect for a forest-inspired pullover (I'm a sucker for pattern names) and I've been wanting to use it for a while. Such a beautiful yarn shouldn't sit around in my stash. SO I want to use it. However, I really hate altering patterns unless I am very confident that I know what I am doing. I don't right now, and my brain is fried from grant proposals, so I want to make one of the sizes as written. So there is only one solution. Math!
The yarn called for is Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino, which gets a gauge of 29 stitches to 4 inches in the rib pattern (which you see in my swatch). If you divide 29 by 4 you get 7.25 stitches per inch (for a sweater? please.) Now, I did my swatch on 18 stitches since the pattern repeat is 9 stitches, but through the power of fractions it will all be ok in the end. My swatch measured approximately 3.12 inches on size 4s, slightly stretched, giving me a gauge of 5.54 stitches to the inch (now thats more like it). The ratio of what I have to what the pattern calls for is 5.77:7.25 = 0.80
Now for the sizing. I have a 38-inch bust, but for a sweater like this (and because I would rather it be a little large than a little small, blocking aside) I would like to shoot for a bust size of about 39". Using MATH (!) all I have to do is multiply the size I want by the ratio of the gauges to get that I should make the pattern for a (39*0.80 = ) 31" bust. The smallest size is a 31" bust (yay!), so it should be great. Also, I checked and the row gauge should definitely be fine, since that is easy to take into account. And it even means I have enough yarn. Yay math!
So I have two grant proposals due this week. One is actually for money, which was submitted about 2 days ago (more than 36 hours before it was due, thankyouverymuch). I figured out a mistake I made on it this morning, but I can't do anything about it now, so I'll just hope no one notices. The second is a fake NIH proposal for a class I am taking and is due tomorrow. It is currently being proofed by my partner, so everything is cool. I also actually got a protein gel to cooperate well enough to transfer to a membrane today. All in all, everything is pretty great. Tiring and at times demoralizing, but great.
Ok all, I'm off to knit other stuff. Peace out.
