This past weekend I finished up the Nordic Christmas test/sample knit for The Unique Sheep, so I have time for my own projects again. As the name implies, the Nordic Christmas shawl involves colorwork. It was my first real colorwork project and I found it to be somewhat challenging. I now understand why you generally don't use superwash wool for stranded colorwork, and why you knit stranded colorwork in the round (wrong side rows in stranded colorwork can be a challenge), but I also discovered that I really enjoy stranded colorwork. It has been two years since I worked on a project from Tudor Roses by Alice Starmore. As readers may recall, I have a goal of working every single pattern in the book. I have completed the first two patterns, but I balked at the third pattern because it involved, you guessed it, stranded colorwork. Having successfully completed a colorwork project I decided I was up for the challenge, so I grabbed a couple of leftover skeins and did the gauge swatch. I'm happy to say that my gauge is spot on, with the needle size called for. In the past I have had trouble getting the gauge called for because my knitting was a little too loose. But lately I've been paying more attention to my gauge and how I tension the yarn and form my stitches, so I can control it more effectively.
I still have many challenges ahead with this project. No single size fits me, so I will have to figure out how to combine several sizes, and I will have to steek and cut my knitting! The colors in the swatch are not the colors that I will be using for my project. These are the colors I will be using: Wild Orchid and Corn Crake.
Pattern: Elizabeth of York by Alice Starmore, from Tudor Roses
Needle: US 3 (3.25 mm)
Yarn: Hebridean 2-Ply
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