I was knitting along on my Autumn Rose sleeve again yesterday excited to be past the corrugated rib.  The first few rows of alternating between two colors without having to purl was novel and fun.  As the sleeve lengthened, it occurred to me that the pattern was looking awful “smooshed” and not at all clear.  Hmm…wonder what that’s about?  Well, I never did a swatch.  Since I am a loose knitter I just figured I’d cast on with a #1 (pattern calls for 2 & 3) and undoubtedly be fine.  Besides, I really feel like a sleeve counts as a swatch.  If it works out just keep going and if it doesn’t you’re really no worse off that if you had knitted a real swatch.1  I checked my gauge after a couple of rows and all was it should be.  At some point in the sleeve I must have started getting use to the newness of fair isle patterning.  Seems knitting with two colors changes my tension into something that produces a fabric at 9 spi when it should have been 7.5.  :doh:  So you know what happened next.  Looks better, doesn’t it? 

Next I’d like to give a shout out to Georgia Mountain Fiber.  Remember that free alpaca I got a while back? I finally decided that I would do it no justice by trying to wash and prepare it myself.   Now I have beautiful roving that looks as if it could practically spin itself.  It is so lofty it almost looks pre-drafted.  They did everything…picked, washed, carded, dehaired etc. all with an environmentally safe process.  Since I had a relatively small amount of fiber (3.6 pounds) they were able to process it and get it back to me in just a couple of weeks.  If I ever get lucky enough to score some more raw fiber I will definitely use them again.

1. Plus we all know the rule…gauge lies.  It also can change when knitting flat instead of round. [↩]