I read that on a blog today, and thought "Damn, she's right!"
I LOVE multi-colored yarns. I am in love with the concept of making one garment printed in the colors I want, not some colorist at some design house, who farms it out to 12 year olds in another country. But there are pitfalls to multi-colored yarns. One of the most notable is the color stack. I know I blogged about it a few days ago, but here it is, dissected.
1. Cast on with 2.5 mm needles. Everything's peachy.
2. Changed to 4 mm needles, and the colors start to stack and snake.
3. Where I thought "I'll just alternate balls of yarn." You can still see the snake, but it's broken up a bit.
4. Where I said screw it, and went back to a smaller needle size. Either I am gonna work alternating balls of yarn, or work using smaller needles. Smaller needles are simpler. I learned the small needle trick from Alice Trueman. There is still a little color stacking, but it's WAY more subdued and fractured, and I can live with that.
If it gives you fits, and snakes and spits, try going down a few needle sizes.
Note to Vamanta: I am quoting Euro sizing because I am using Inoxes, and they are stamped with Euro sizes.
Note to Barbara and Marie-yes, it will change the tension. In a multicolor like this, it is not as glaringly obvious as it would be in a solid. This is meant to be a close fitting garment, and it has ribbing, so I am not worried.
7 comments:
Hey = that's working out great! Nope, doesn't scream "I'm a knitter".
Les
Excellent demo on the difference needle size makes with variegated yarns. Alice is a genius. I think it looks good and screams "Summer!" in a good way.
No it doesn't sceam "I'm a knitter" I love how the colors look on the smaller needles. It looks the way you would imagine variegated yarns should look. So often, ok most of the time they don't and end up being a big disappointment. This looks beautiful. All the colors flow from one to another. Sweet, girlfriend, sweet
suzann
I think it screams "I'm pretty and I go with a lot of different things"....looking very good there.
Call me crazy, but I love being able to tell if someone is wearing a handknit garment. Did you ever tell me why you use metric sizes?
Interesting study on needle size & pattern snaking. But... doesn't changing needle sizes in the middle also change the overall size of the garment?
I have the same question as Smariek. At that point you can't change the stitch count, although you can add more rows if needed. So tell all, how do you compensate for the difference in gauge? That's a lot of difference in needle sizes. And yeah, I'm beginning to learn the metric size range. Guess I'm a knitter!
What would be wrong with a garment showing that it is a lovingly-made hand-knit??
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