As predicted, the thought of a different yarn for Stonecutter finally got the best of me, and I just happened to find myself at an LYS that serves as a Brooklyn Tweed fiber flagship store. Of course, that could only mean one thing: The sweater was trying to tell me that it wanted to be knit in Shelter.
The only problem with this is that while the sweater may have made its choice clear, the yarn itself had a different idea.
Two days of swatching failed to make an honest yarn out of Shelter. While the swatches themselves were true to the numbers, something very mysterious was happening between the swatch and actual cast on and first few rows. The starter ribbing would become enormously stretched despite every attempt on my part, not mention every needle size I own. I sized up. I sized down. All the king's horses and all the king's men could not make my stitches behave in the end. I know ribbing is stretchy, and I also understand that the subsequent cables would have tightened things up considerably. But not enough. Not even close. It was absurdly hopeless.
Which makes me wonder...why? I'm one of those perfectly average knitters who usually achieves the "suggested" gauge time after time, and yet here I was, failing to achieve gauge on a pattern that actually used Shelter for its test knit sample. Perhaps some day, the universe will provide the answer. I so desperately want to adore Shelter, but alas, my love goes unrequited.
The Cascade 220 I originally began with may not be the most exotic yarn on the block, but it never told me lies. So back I go to pick up where I left off while Shelter takes a well-deserved seat in the naughty chair.
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