After reading the comments on my “almost garter” post I decided I liked the idea of changing gauge as I changed color. So, when I was about 2/3 through the two original hanks of lavender and grey Ultra Alpaca Light I added a ball of Pure Merino Heather in one of my favorite greens – the one Margery has so deliciously named Pesto Genovese. The pattern stitched changed when I added a third color. I kept knitting every row, but knitting one row each of 3 colors (in the same order) over and over – produces garter stitch. I no longer had to use both ends of the needle either. I kept that up until I ran out of one of original colors, then I continued in garter in the Pesto Genovese only until I ran out of it too. I never changed needles sizes and to my surprise my scarf didn’t change width, even though Pure Merino Heather is considerably larger than Ultra Alpaca Light. So much for the change of gauge! I think, as my friend Janet suggested, that this might be an artifact of the alpaca being a fiber that likes to expand to it’s fullest potential and that Merino wool has a compressible quality. The merino end of my scarf is not a supple as the alpaca end, but I like the contrast, and I love the way the tightly knit merino stands up like little pearls along each garter row. My finished scarf is about 52″ long. Not the 5′ I thought I wanted, but it does the trick. Hmm, who shall I give it to in a few weeks?
Love the way the colors shift from one end of the scarf to the other. Isn’t it amazing what you can do with a simple knit stitch? I’m going to show this scarf to the beginners in my knitting group who are still in the “rectangle phase.” No need for those rectangles to be boring, right?
Incredibly organic! I really like this. Not everything has to be super-complex to be amazing, this definitely proves that.
Stunning! The three colors are perfect together.
Absolutely stunning. It’s so nice how the complexity of the design is in the colors rather than the stitch. I just love the colors together. Hmmm I have those exact colors in my Ultra Alpaca stash……..runs to add to ravelry queue. 🙂
Um…me? 🙂
Spooky, I’m knitting a dragon in very similar colours. It’s in squeaky acrylic for a child’s christmas, still it’s got purples and mustards in it 🙂
That is wonderful——- so rich and yet quite simple, yes even organic! Love it, love it, love it!!!!!
I think I remember EZ writing about that needle change not affecting gauge in Knitting Without Tears. As I recall, she was trying to make the point that if you knit with 2 differently sized needles (but ones varily close together), your hands will automatically adjust and make the knitting come out even.
If EZ didn’t say that in KWT, then Maggie Rhighetti (sorry for the butchered spelling) may have.
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