Made with reclaimed yarn / ripped back from another project

• WIll use yarn from deep stash. It was previously 90% of a finished cardigan that I didn’t have enough yarn to complete.

• I’ve decided to make this second Rib Tee (Long Sleeve) as I’ve got a lot of wear out of the one I made first. As I have more yarn (and this yarn is more robust that the KFO merino that I used to make the last version), I may opt to make this one a few inches longer - to wear with leggings.

• I can work with either the 3mm or 3.25mm needle given that the fabric produced by each provides a horizontal measurement close to instructed gauge i.e. either side of 30st in 4”. Given that I’m going to make the size 3, I will work with the 3mm needle (the smaller size) because I don’t want a fabric that becomes too open when stretched. If required, I can always work one more ragaln increase before splitting for sleeves.

How I gauge swatch in 2x2 ribbing:

• Knit the swatch with numbers that accord with pattern gauge instructions. In this instance, I cast on with the instructed number of st for 4” (30st) and knitted in pattern to instructed 4” row gauge (40R).

• After soaking, lightly stretch the swatch to the desired st gauge (not overstretching) to see if that impacts shrinkage in the length of the swatch. (If ribbed fabric is “overstretched” horizontally, i.e. beyond its point of stability, it shrinks vertically.)

• Presuming that the fabric is adequately malleable in both directions, pin lightly to instructed gauge. See how it blocks around the pins - if there’s pulling in either direction, it’s likely a sign that the overall gauge (stitches to row ratio) is too small, even if the stitches stay as blocked. On the fip side, it’s easy to determine if the fabric is larger than instructed gauge simply by measuring.

• I opted to block this swatch to 4” of length specifically to confirm that I could meet row gauge. I also pinned horizontally to gauge / not stretching the fabric beyond stability. Then I watched how the pins impacted the 4” x 4” shape of the swatched while it settled/dried. Note that the fabric was more than happy to stretch to 4” length after soaking and it dried to ithis dimension without cinching the horizontal gauge.

• For reference: The reason I used a 2.75mm needle on the body of my original version - instead of the recommended 3mm - is because the KFO merino fingering that I worked with was 20% less robust (in grist) than the Quince yarn I’m using to make this version.

• Body: I think I will make this version longer than instructed by at least 2”, though this fabric seems to shrink less than the KFO merino I used last time. I’ll likely knit to 18” from split for sleeves / join in round and try it on to see if that’s long enough… Update: I opted to stop at 15.5” because that length actually looks good and, realistically, I’ll get more use out of this if I can half-tuck into jeans. This garment is more or less done as of March 6, 2026.

• Sleeves: I’ve left the sleeves (and body) on barber cords till after blocking, in the event that I need to add or remove length.

• At size 3, the instructed sleeve length is 19.75”. That’s 2” longer than my arms so I decided to math this up (as I did last time) to determine my rate of decrease.

• I’ll go from 96st to 56st (instructed start and finish stitch counts) over 17.75”. At my gauge, I will knit each sleeve to ~174R vs the 194R I’d have to knit to get to 19.75”.

• Since I need to decrease 40st over 2-st decrease rounds, that means I have 20 dec rounds to work with over that length. That comes to 1 dec round every 8.7R. Let’s call that 8R so that I am left with a bit of room at the end (approx 1”) to work plain before binding off. Better to finish the decs a bit early than to not get through them over the desired length.

• I worked the 4R after CO and prior to starting the decreases. Then worked dec round, as instructed, then worked 7R. Following this, I continued to work R1 Dec R2-8 In pattern/plain until 56st of circumference. I’ll have about 10R at the end, with no additional decreases, to get to the desired length.

Final Thoughts:

• So glad this is finished. It really took a long time - which is what happens when you only pick something up occasionally and you aren’t entirely thrilled to be knitting it (though you know the end result will be worth it).

• Happily, when I tried on the garment after blocking and before binding off body and sleeves (to confirm fit), the vertical measurements worked without adjustment so I was able to just bind off.

• I may take the post-blocked dimensions but, in reality, they are not representative of the fit because there is so much negative ease built into the stitch pattern.

• Cost of Yarn: It’s really hard to tell because I bought the yarn 13 years ago and I have no evidence of that purchase in my Ravelry stash page (the one I’ve linked to here is a new entry). I must have deleted it somehow. At the time, I remember the yarn being very expensive for what it was because there were no Cdn stockists. Shipping was also expensive back then. When I try to figure it out based on metrics available now, I can’t seem to find any TO stockists anymore, though Finch was available locally for a few years. Perhaps it’s no longer being sold in shops since the company was sold?

• Were I to buy it at retail price in the US, not including shipping but taking into account the exchange rate today, I estimate that it would cost ~$205 CDN. While this yarn was well-made and the older stock wears well, it cost more than the yarn was worth, IMO. And I don’t support this brand any longer for multiple reasons, so I can’t recommend it. moreover, I’ve not bought it in years so I don’t know if the quality has changed since the brand has undergone many corporate changes.

• The yarn bled dye horrendously…

Gauge Swatches:

3.25mm (wrong size but I got confused) This swatch can be identified by the orange stitch marker.

Preblocked: Entirely unstretched: ?st - I worked 30st which should block to 4” bt it is only 2.6” unstretched - and 37R in 4”

Postblocked: 28.7st and 40R in 4”

3mm (instructed size)

Preblocked: Entirely unstretched ?st - I worked 30st which should block to 4” bt it is only 2.4” unstretched - and 38R in 4”

Postblocked: 29.3st and 40R in 4”