To Swatch, Perchance to Dream

Please Note: Photos deleted in computer meltdown!

Deciding on the yarn for the Brenda sweater was easy; the original looks like cashmere. But cashmere is a little pricey for my first adventure in design, so I went with my personal favorite, alpaca. I've been spinning and knitting with alpaca for ages; it's soft and warm and oh so yummy. Didn't want to spin my own yarn for this project, so I went to my online source for alpaca (elann.com NAYY) They carry a Pure Alpaca in worsted weight at a most reasonable price. They used to carry a color called Sand that was a perfect match to the sweater worn on The Closer. But alas, the color is either discontinued or just not available when I went looking, so I settled for the "Golden Haze" colorway. Since I'm guessing on how much yarn this not-so-little cardigan number will take, I ordered 12 balls, thinking 10 should be enough and 2 are insurance. Now it's just a matter of finding the right lace pattern while I wait for the yarn to arrive.

I like lace. I like knitting lace. I have lots of lace knitting books and patterns. But a 3 hour search of all things lace in my library of pattens brought me several "almost right" chevron lace patterns but nothing "exactly" right. So I decided to swatch my way to perfection. With some leftover balls of Pure Alpaca I went to work. If you look really closely at the pix of the sweater posted earlier you'll note that the chevron pattern is a true "V" with four eyelets each side. And the pattern repeats are close to each other with almost a line delineating one from the next. This proved trickier than it looks.

Swatch #1 was a disaster. The pattern came straight out of a standard pattern book and is almost impossible to decipher. The tension was dead on, the yarn just right, but the eyelet pattern was all but invisible.

Swatch #2 was better. The chevron came out crisp and clear, but the spacing was wrong. There's no space between repeats and if you look at the sweater pix there should be a line separating them. So I needed to swatch on.

Swatch #3 was moving in the right direction. I want the space between the chevron repeats to be distinct, which these are not, but at least there's a space. Keep swatching......

Swatches #4, #5 and #6 were variations on spacing. I tried first two and then three knit stitches between chevrons, but they didn't look right. My DH, listening to my sighs of exasperation, suggested a purl on each side of a center knit stitch. That was swatch #6. It was almost right..... Then came the epiphany - a center purl stitch might just do it.

As so Swatch #7 was born, and gave me just the look I wanted! Next phase: full design.