Turkey Talk

It is time to talk turkey. (Every wonder about the origin of that phrase? Me too. I love etymology. Blingo gave me this site right off (Blingo has yet to give me a prize though, stupid Blingo). It explains that the phrase comes from 1824. We have a lot of interesting phrases and slang in our language. I work with people who speak English as their second language and they have gotten used to asking me what certain things mean. I never realized how often I use slang and confusing phrases.)

Back to the turkey. Or the sheep. Or the sweater.

Here is the beauty in its full glory.

"post shower, pre hair dryer" hair


As I mentioned in my other post, bathing the yarn blocked into a much denser, softer fabric. Having done the requisite swatch-dunk I knew this ahead of time. However, I knit my swatch flat and knit the sweater in the round. My gauge definitely changed between the two which meant that I could not really trust my post dunk swatch gauge.

As you all know, I adjusted my pattern (with a fancy-pants spreadsheet) to my gauge as I knit. This was a fabulous plan that worked out great. Starting with the sleeves enabled me to make sure my body was spot on.

This was my goal:
Sleeve Length = 19.5"
Body Length = 15.0"
Width at Hips/Chest = 18.25" diameter, 36.5" circumference
Width at Waist = 16.7" diameter, 33.4" circumference.

And so it goes. It was exactly that until I blocked it (except for the width around the body, this was off and is a discussion for a different day).

You see, the requisite swatch-dunk that I did pre-project --- well, I missed the pre-block measure. Which meant I couldn't determine how or where the swatch changed gauge. Pre or post or post or pre. Poo or Poo

Anyway - blah blah blah. The blocked sweater was a bit shorter in the arms and the length than I intentioned.



Final word - Love the spread sheet. Will defo use it again. 13" is too short for a sweater for me (at least until I loose some chubs). Sleeves need to be at least 17" for me to be happy. A finished bust of 38" is a just about all right for a sweater of this type...but it could have gone smaller and still would have been way okay.

Bored yet? I am. On to bigger (and better) things.


Clarification: In one of my previous posts I stated that my I used size US8 needles, which was a US9 to normal people. First of all, I misspoke. You see have a problem with remembering whether or not I need to go up or down a needle size. Much like I have a problem alphabetizing things (I always need to recite the entire alphabet to figure out if r goes before or after t). I always need to go up a needle size. My sentence should have said that I used size US8 needles, which was a US7 to normal people. To further clarify, I am a tight knitter and as a matter of practice always go up one needle size from the recommended size. Having said this, I knit a lot looser in the round so this may not totally be true in the case of this sweater.

You all weren't much help in figuring out my 3.2.1 for my 30 list. Atrophy of the brain is not an acceptable excuse. My girl Stitchy brought out the big guns...where are all of your snarky brain cells? Surely they have not disappeared?