Making Swatches

Yesterday I promisted you that I'd give you an update on my pattern "Luck Sack."  Here's what the bag currently looks like:

Thats is my handspun California Red / Huacaya yarn that I just finished for SAPGAP, a portion of it dyed with lime Koolaid. A walkthrough of the technique will be included with the pattern. You can also search the internet.  I had fun trying out a few combinations yesterday. :D

When the bag is finished I intend to felt it so that no dice can force their way through a stitch. I did a swatch in the yarn, 25 sts by 25 sts.  Then it was time to felt it. 

(Well, technically turning a knitted piece into a felt-like fabric is called "fulling" but most non-knitters don't know that.  I prefer to stick to layman's terms so I will call it "felting" here.)

I measured my knitted piece then I went and held it in the sink under hot/warm running water and rubbed it viggirously.  I folded it in half and used the swatches' own abrasiveness. It rolled up and I used that, too.  Then I unwound it from itself and folded it the opposite direction and rubbed again. Think; using a scoring pad to scour itself. 

I did this over and over again until I was satisfied that it was done felting. I tugged at the edges to get it to lay out. 

I meaured how big it was again.  I divided the new size by the old size.  My swatch is 66% of its original size in both directions (sts and rows). So I know it shrunk by 33%.  Using those numbers I can now calculate how many stitches to cast on or increase to while knitting to get my finidhed felted piece to the size I want. 

Furthermore, this pattern is going to have an intarsia (method of adding a color picture to the knitting) shamrock. I needed to write out the graph and test it. I hand drew a shamrock on knitters graph paper. (The boxes are rectangles instead of squares to reflect the shape of the knit stitch.)  I then knitted up the swatch using some scrap yarn. (I don't want to waste my good handspun!)

I snugged up the intarisa too tight but didn't worry too much. I went and felted this swatch. 

I'm sure you can see some of the problems. 

1) The too tight intarsia did effect the swatch

2) The scrap sock wool I used was 25% nylon and didn't felt right. 

3) The middle leaves are too tall, the side leaves too wide. You can't even see the stem!

4) It is a little smaller than the requested 3" square. 

So I hit the graph paper again. I also use some rejected Koolaide-dyed yarn to do the colorwork. I liked the color but it wasn't what my husband envisioned for his bag.  Here is the new swatch I finished this morning:

And here is the reverse side with very loose stranding. 

Before I felted the swatch I made sure to tidy up the color change stitches but tugging firmly, yet gently, on those back loose strands. I wove in my ends and then got to work at the sink.

 

Victory!  I love it.  My husband is happy with it.  The shamrock is about 3 1/8" square so it is the right size. I yanked a bit too hard on the right side but that issue should be eliminated when on the bag.  Now it's time to knit the graph into the bag.  Woohoo!  It is so exciting seeing everything come togather. 

By the way, the next time you think a pattern is too expensive, think about all the trial and error that went into it. All the drawing and swatching I've done has taken an estimated 6-7 hours. That's not counting knitting the final product!


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