Gauge swatches, gauge swatches everywhere and not a thing to knit

I have recently made….2.5 gauge swatches for jumpers. And then a little thing that’s alsmost a gauge swatch but I don’t care about gauge (so just a swatch???). And I finally got around to washing and blocking this gorgeous shawl.

 

Shawl first!

This is a Manos del Uruguay something (it’s in my ravelry but eh). It was very smooshy when it’s finished and I’m *really* hoping its wash didn’t stop that, but it really needed blocking so I’m kinda on tenterhooks here. It’s white and purple and green and I love it.

 

Double knitting! One of the members of my spinning group said that she wanted to learn double knitting, so I (foolishly?) piped up to say that I knew and I’d happily teach a class on it. So then I had to relearn how to double knit bc it was a while ago (ravelry says May 2017). It’s an amazing technique and now I’ve done some again I regret having abandoned it for so long (but not that much because I have no immediate plans to do something crazy like a double knit blanket.)

 

2.5 gauge swatches! The one on the left is for a 4ply jumper (full disclosure- the *pattern* is for a 4ply jumper. The yarn I got is 5 ply according to ravelry, so we shall see…). I swatched on 3.5mm and 3mm needles and I really hope one of them is good for gauge because the idea of knitting  sportweight yarn on 2.5mm needles when the pattern says gauge on 3.5mm needles is slightly insane, however much I’m getting sued to the idea that I knit *very* loosely!

The top right swatch is actually this really nice green for a cabled aran weight jumper. That swatch is on 4.5mm, 4mm and 3.5mm needles and I think (measuring the pre-washed swatch) the 3.5mm needles are on gauge.

The bottom is half a swatch- I want to see how this chunky yarn behaves after washing before I continue the swatch. There’s no point carrying on with these needles if I’m wildly out, but it’s currently on 5.5mm needles which is one size down from the suggested needle size so I’m hoping I get gauge on this (or close enough to justify continuing this swatch).

 

I currently don’t have anything (interesting) on the needles because I only have one set of 3mm needles and I don’t want to tie them up in a project at the moment because so many of them will likely need it (the next shawl I want to do, a different other shawl I want to do, hopefully that 5ply jumper….). Lets cast on a pair of socks, that seems like a good idea 🙂