Out Damn Swatch

B returned yesterday with the digicam so I can post photos of my new friends, 18 balls of Lana Grossa Bingo.  Let's all say yummy together.

At first it just looks like your run of the mill DK, but it's just so soft.  A dream to snuggle with.  This is not your mom's 100% wool yarn. 

The following is a photo I like to call, "still life with damn swatch."  Still no gauge.  *sigh*

Looks innocent enough, doesn't it?  But look closer.  What is up with my stitches? 

I didn't mention this before because I couldn't show you a photo.  Do you see how the left side of my stitches look all tubular and vertical?  What the?

Here's a funny story about the way I knit.  A friend of mine happened to teach me the "Eastern" way of knitting.  That is, not only do I knit continental (yarn in left hand), but she also taught me to wrap the yarn the opposite way around my needle when making knit stitches.  She's of Persian background, so it makes sense.  I taught myself how to purl from a "Stitch 'n Bitch," so I purl the way you'd expect.  The effect is that my stitches crossed. 

I only recently figured this out when one of my sweaters went horribly awry and someone on the Knitty Board suggested that I try combination knitting.  Lucia over at The Knitting Fiend has a good explanation of combination knitting, which helped me to unlock the mystery of my stitches. 

Since then I've been retraining myself to knit the Western way so that my stitches don't turn out crossed.  I was also hoping that my gauge woes would disappear.

I didn't realize that it would totally ef up my knitting all together.  Now I have the weirdness you see above.  Please tell me this is the yarn and it will relax.   Should I even be trying to get gauge with such strange output?

Comments

[Yvonne in Southwest Virginia]

Did you ever figure this one out? I picked up this comment in a forum I was in where a knitter was complaining about her stitches biasing and I thought about you and your problem. In her case, she was knitting in the round.

>>No, knitting in the round doesn't always bias. It sometimes does, but usually it's because the yarn is unbalanced. Do your knit stitches look like stacked Vs, like this:
\/
\/
\/

Or do they look skewed, like this:
\|
\|
\|

If the stitches are skewed, it's definitely an unbalanced yarn. If not, the problem could still be other issues with the yarn, or it could be a spiraling issue. The good news is that blocking will mostly fix it.<<

So I guess the answer is *Yes, it prolly IS the yarn. I don't know that I'd want to put all the time and effort into making the sweater with this yarn and then *hope* the blocking will take care of it. How about making a swatch and blocking that to see?

[Jen]

Hi Yvette! Thanks for thinking about me and my weird stitches!

Indeed I did discover the answer to my yarn woes. I definitely washed and blocked a few swatches to make sure my gauge was right. The stitch weirdness persisted.

However, I happened to be on the supernewbie support group on the Knitty Board, when I saw a post about 'assymetrical stitches.' A wise responder sent the original poster, and me too, to the following article in Knitty about this very topic: http://www.knitty.com/issuefall05/FEATwhyply.html

I know less than zero about spinning, so I'm at risk of spreading misinformation. I don't think the yarn is messed up, but rather this is just how it is. I'm about 8 inches into the front of my husband's sweater, and I don't really notice it anymore. B, my husband, can't even see what I'm talking about when I show it to him. At least that's what he says. ;) I'll post photos when I have more to show.