02-03-2020

I’m working this in one yarn, a beautiful gradient. It’s not quite as much as the pattern calls for, but I’ll weigh the remaining yarn when I join in the round, calculate what the first section used, and be sure to leave at least that much to work the last section.

The pattern has some fiddly increases, but it’s very clever -- they combine to make stockinette fabric that grows as evenly as garter.

06-03-2020

102.2 gr remaining after working the set-up triangle. So I should leave just over 50 gr for the closing triangle, to be safe!

08-03-2020

This is interesting. Because I’m just working with one solid yarn, and not cutting lengths for striping — and maybe because this is slightly on the light side for fingering — I’m actually making the cowl LONGER than called for, not shorter! I expected to have to cut the middle section (the part worked in the round) short to be sure I’d have enough yarn for that closing triangle. In fact, I’ve worked the 8-round repeat in the middle section 4 times, where the pattern only calls for two, and I still have enough yarn to work one more repeat before the closing triangle. Since I want to use as much of the yarn as possible to use the full gradient, I’m happy to just keep going. The fabric is light enough that it will bunch up nicely and the extra length won’t be an issue.

09-03-2020

I worked 5 repeats of that centre section, until there was 54 gr of yarn remaining, then started the final triangle.

I noticed that with the opening triangle and the closing triangle, for the extra increase or decrease rows, the incs/decs were not centred. For example, the extra dec row in the closing triangle has you purl until 5 sts before the middle marker, p2tog, p to marker (i.e., p3), sm, p5, p2tog, etc. But there’s a centre stitch before the marker, so the 5 sts before the marker include 2 used for decreasing, and the centre stitch; but on the other side, you work 5 whole sts before decreasing, and there’s no centre stitch on that side of the marker — so the net result is that the decreases on one side are 2 sts away from the centre stitch, and on the other side, they are 5 sts away from it. (I changed it to be 2 sts away on either side.) The opening triangle’s extra increases are similar, though I think they were only off-centre by 1 or 2 sts. Not a huge deal, and with stripes to distract the eye, it’s probably not noticeable. With the smooth gradient yarn and no stripes, inconsistent stitches really stick out, so I’m being picky.

13-03-2020

The yarn is really pretty. But when I washed it, it bled like crazy. Even after 5 soaks/rinses, the water was still as dark as fruit punch. I ended up heating it with some citric acid solution, which did improve the set of the dye substantially. I didn’t notice much transfer of colour onto my hands while knitting (except when I handled an alcohol swab and it came away from my fingers pink) but I would not want the oils/sweat from the face and neck to cause dye transfer during wear!

Also, it turns out that I had enough yarn left over that I could have done another repeat in the centre section — but the cowl is plenty long as is, and I got to the end of the colour transition, so that’s fine.

I do find it interesting that in this colourway, the end colours are solid for quite a long while (probably a quarter of the skein was the same red, and another quarter the same brown), and the gradient really only happens in the middle half of the skein. That actually worked well in this case, but I’ll bear it in mind when planning other projects with this dyer’s yarn (of which I have two more skeins).