When I originally decided to make the Stonecrop Cardigan, I thought I would use a superwash yarn for the main body of the sweater. I chose the top (darkest magenta) color, and thought it would work well. And I still think it would look pretty in a sweater. But I don’t like how it is looking in this sweater. Most superwash yarn, because of the processing, loses its “stickiness” because the scales of the fiber are removed or dulled. That means that superwash wools are a bit less susceptible to felting. But they are also a bit more slippery and tend to be more difficult to use in colorwork. A lot of colorwork is done with non-superwash wools. The wool is not as slippery, and tends to produce more even colorwork (though not always).
I was watching an old episode of a knitting podcast the other day, where the knitter had been working on a test knit of the pullover version of this sweater. She used Quince and Co Finch (a fingering weight 100% non-superwash wool), and I got to thinking about how much I enjoyed knitting my Nieve sweater. I had used Quince and Co Lark (worsted weight, 100% non-superwash wool).
The stitch definition is awesome, and it was a real joy to knit.
So I decided to rip out what I’ve already done, and I’m going to restart the cardigan using the medium shade of magenta (bottom). Since both it and the contrasting yarn are non-superwash, I’m anxious to see how the knitting of the colorwork sections are going to go. Fingers crossed!
Sometimes we take a step back to move in a slightly different direction.
And what is it with me and pinks all of a sudden?