Future Project Planning: Stone Washed Sylvi

Yarn: Scheepjes Stone Washed XL  (850 – Garnet)
Pattern: Sylvi (Ravelry)

I’m so excited about this project, even though I keep putting it off as more urgent things come up.  I first added the pattern to my favorites on Ravelry last year and filed it away in my brain under “pipedream”… meaning, no way I’d ever be able to knit something that complicated.  At that time I was still knitting mostly square shaped things and the odd sock and thought I could tackle this type of pattern.

Now?  I totally think I can.  It’d be a challenge, but I could do it.  I just need to find the time!  I have had the yarn for it for a few weeks now, but I have a couple of orders I need to finish before I can dig into it.  It’s just sitting there… taunting me, calling out to me… and I can’t do anything about it!  Well, that’s not entirely true, I did start doing some gauge swatches, which has only proven to make me want to get started even more.  I have never worked in seed stitch and I really love the texture of it, at least in the swatch.

Speaking of gauge swatches, I know it can’t just be me that absolutely hates doing it.  If only yarns came in standard thicknesses and patterns were created to be exactly right for them, and we all knitted with the exact same tension. *sigh*  What a wonderful world that would be.  A wonderfully simple world, without the variation that spices up our lives but still – A world without gauge swatches!

We don’t live in that world though, do we?  We live in a world where we have a plethora of beautiful yarns and patterns and as long as we want to enjoy that we must live with the dreaded swatch.

With this pattern and yarn I am struggling a bit getting the gauge right.  The stitch gauge works out perfectly but I end up with a lot more rows, which is bizarre.  The yarn is slightly thinner than what the pattern calls for, so I think it will just require a bit of tweaking.  Maybe I’ll just add a few rows, or better yet, maybe once the jacket it hanging it will all work out.  I’m not sure it will mater since I’m quite Hobbit sized anyway.

One good thing about having to put off this project in order to finish others?  I can put off worrying about the gauge too! Ha!

The yarn itself is really great and I think it’s going to be perfect for this type of outerwear.  I’m basing that on a really strange experience I had while working with the swatches.  I knitted them up, soaked them in some of my delicious jasmine scented Wrapture and did my usual roll up in a towel and walk on it method that I learned from Staci at VeryPink.com.  When I took them out of the towel to put them on the blocking boards, I do not lie, they felt completely dry.  They felt dry to the point of making me wonder if I’d lost my mind and thought I soaked them when I really hadn’t.  So I gave them another soak, making sure to swish them around and squeeze water into them… same darn thing!   Only this time I knew for sure I had soaked them, so I just went ahead and put them on the blocking board.

Maybe it would be different when you are actually wearing a jacket made of this yarn and got it wet, I have no idea, but it’s soft and dries shockingly fast.  It seems like something I’d like to wear.

Now, if only I could get around to making it.  I had planned on starting next week but I was asked to make something last minute for a magazine shoot (which I hope to be able to write about later), and well, that was just too cool to pass up.  So the Sylvi will just have to wait for now.  I’ll keep you posted!

Stone Washed and Stone Washed XL yarn are available from these retailers in the Netherlands or worldwide via WoolWarehouse* and Deramores.com.

*Affiliate Link