Swatching for a Cardigan

Trying to decide what knitting to take on a trip is always a challenge: it should be portable, it shouldn’t be too challenging technically, but it should be interesting enough to be entertaining.

I’ve had Jennifer Beale’s Fort Amherst cardigan in my queue for a while now and this might actually fit the bill, despite the fact that it’s a sweater and lugging a sweater around while I’m knitting it doesn’t seem so smart. But it has an incredibly unusual construction: The long vertical cables are knit first, on their own, an 8-stitch pattern that goes on for 25 inches or so; then side cables are attached to them and knit down; then the fair isle strips are attached to the cables and worked in the round and steeked. All of this seems fairly straightforward and might just work. But because you’re attaching vertically knit pieces to horizontal ones, the row gauge as well as the stitch gauge is going to need to work in order to avoid some very complex math, certainly beyond my capabilities.

Which is where swatching comes in: I’m swatching double moss-stitch, the single cable ropes, and the stranded colorwork separately. I measure the swatches before blocking then soak the swatch, allowing it to dry flat after being gently rolled in a towel, and measure again, noticing the difference.

My lilac moss stitch swatch is going to have to be redone on a larger size needle; the cable is perfect as is, and I’m not sure yet about the stranded colorwork…