Well, the Olympics are in their 5th day and there are 7 medal events on today including Women’s 500m Short Track speed Skating. That should be a dandy to watch! As for the knitting Olympics, I hope you’re farther ahead than I am! I still have to cast on my first stitches! I have finally dyed all the yarn and am happy with the colors. I have also dyed some red and blue as well, so if I have any left over after the sweater is made, I’ll have all the Olympic colors to make something for the second phase of the knitting Olympics. I’ll have to finish the sweater first though. The next phase in that endeavor is to design it. Since it will be knit in the round, it will be a simple matter for the actual pattern. The hard part will be to actually design the pattern that will be in the sweater itself.
The swatch for my Jamaican Gold sweater - 8 sts per inch!
For this I am going to print out some knitting graph paper. What makes it different from regular graph paper? Well, regular graph paper is square, and usually comes ruled in 4×4 (4 squares x 4 squares per inch). In knitting, you always have more rows than stitches per inch, so if you use regular graph paper you don’t get a true representation of what the image or design will look like. A great option is to print the graph paper in the same ratio as the gauge you get from your swatch. That way you can see the entire finished garment before you even cast on a stitch. I finished my swatch yesterday and came up with 8 stitches x 9 rows per inch. Yes, that’s going to be a lot of stitches to fit a 44″ chest as the actual sweater will be 48″ when finished. There are a few options to actually do the graph paper. You could use a spreadsheet program like Excel and change the size of your rows and columns manually to fit the gauge, or you can do what I’m doing and go to one of the numerous websites that will produce the graph paper for you. You simply put in your gauge and let them do the rest. I will print out the entire sweater on a piece of tabloid sized paper later today and then get busy with the pencil crayons. Bet you didn’t realize that designing could be this much fun!
After that I will wind up the black yarn (now dry) and some white that I have decided to use as well, and get going. with a little luck, few distractions, and a lot of perseverance I might just get it done in time. Was that 12 days left I heard? Wish me luck!
Hugzzz 😎