GHAAAAAAAaaaa! 👿

You know I said I had gotten to the armholes on Heligan? There was a helpful line in the pattern which said,

“If row tension is correct, back will measure 25.5 cm from cast on edge…”

I like notes like that in a pattern – they let you know if you’re on track…or not.

I measured my beautifully knitted back…

I measured several times hoping to get a different result…

From Heligan

The ruler(s) do not lie…

From Heligan

Even squinting and looking at that ruler from an angle, I had to admit, that doesn’t say 25.5cm 🙁

It’s too small. My tension is too tight.

I did half heartedly check my tension and knew it was a little tighter than the pattern so had cast on the size 10 (I’m usually an 8) but this was WAY out. The width of the back was too small too. Bugger.

Time to swatch on bigger needles. I had used 3mm as given by the pattern so I switched to 3.5mm and did a proper swatch (I know, I know ,I should have done that in the first place – I can see you all wagging fingers at me!)

I also took the opportunity to try changing one of the colours. I wasn’t thrilled that the dark purple (Sloe) didn’t stand out against my substituted lilac (Floret). My lilac is quit a bit darker than the original colour. This means the stripe which goes “Lilac,Purple,Lilac” merges into one big purple stripe. My solution? I just happen to have a ball of a brighter Purple left over from making Geno.

Remember Geno?

From

Oh gosh – that was 2008 – I feel old 😮

Back to the Heligan swatch….

I made my swatch in the stripe pattern so I could test the new Purple as well as my tension on 3.5mm needles.

What do you think? Here’s, left to right, Lilac, New Purple and Original Purple…

From Heligan

And here’s how the swatch looks compared with the original piece….

From Heligan

I’m torn – I know the original Purple is a better fir tonally (has that mist grey hue to it) but I like being able to differentiate between the colours??? Hmmm…

Ben (who actually has a really good eye for colour), likes the new (saved from Geno) purple. What do you think?

And the tension? On my new 3.5mm needles the tension is an exact match for the pattern…time to cast on again , this time in a size 8 – at least it’s a few less stitches!