I’ve been having really good fun swatching with the Blacker Breeds Jacob yarn, that I started chatting about yesterday. They sent me the DK to try out in Purple Clay and Purple Granite.
My first inclination was to use both colours, and cast on for a bit of brioche. This stitch seems to have been absorbed into the realm of hand-dyed merino, so I wanted to give it a whirl with a more robust, woolly yarn. I’m completely smitten with the fabric, and want to resort to descriptors like ‘smooshy’. Blacker Breeds Jacob has a crispness to it, so the yarn will really hold a shape. In brioche the columns of stitches stand up to create that wonderfully insulative double layered fabric that we all love. The fabric feels cosy, and I suspect it would hold its shape and wear well. I knitted my swatch on 3.75 mm needles at a gauge of 17 stitches over 10 cm.
I made two swatches in stocking stitch. The first one (above in Purple Clay) was knitted on 3.25 mm needles, at a gauge of 23 stitches over 10 cm. Weirdly, I knitted the second one (below in Purple Granite) on 3.75 mm needles and arrived at exactly the same gauge. This astounded me because the fabric of each feels quite different. The Purple Granite feels a little softer, and has more drape. How earth I’ve arrived at exactly the same gauge on two different needle sizes is utterly beyond me. (I swear I’ve double checked this about six times now.) I can only put it down to the texture of the fleece in it’s different natural shades. The different coloured fibres, from the same fleece, can vary significantly in fineness and texture.
In the interests of wear and tear testing, I’ve popped one of the swatches into my bra strap for the armpit test. Pop back on Friday to see how it got on.
louleigh 