Lupine Saltwind - One Chart Repeat Done!

I have completed one repeat of the charts, and my gauge is looking great.  Granted, I haven’t blocked it, but I’m not one of those people that try to use blocking to change the shape of garments.  I block lace pretty strenuously, but not garments.  I have 20 more rounds to work before I start the armhole shaping.  I’ve made a few cabling mistakes that I had to fix by dropping stitches down, the worst was having to drop 14 stitches down 9 rows to fix a cable cross.

And here is the other side.

Pattern:  Saltwind by keiko kikuno 

Yarn:  Quince & Co. Osprey

Needle:  US 7 (4.5 mm)

Lupine Saltwind - Ribbing Done!

I finished up the ribbing last night and started working the cable design.  The gauge for the ribbing was given as 24 stitches and 23 rounds in four inches.  Now measuring in ribbing is always a bit problematic because of the stretchiness, but looking at it on the needles, I think I’m pretty good.  I am a little shy of four inches in height at 23 rounds of ribbing, but that may well block out, so I’m not worried.  I decided to stay on the US 7 needles for the body.  The set up round was a bit of a beast, as I didn’t find the designations for the cable stitches intuitive at all and had to consistently look at the instructions, but thanks to knitCompanion it was easy to keep track of where I was in the row.  When I got to the body it has you knit moss stitch, Chart A, Chart B, Chart A, moss stitch.  I flipped Chart A so that it would be a mirror image the second time I worked it, making the pattern symmetric, an easy thing to do in knitCompanion.

As I was knitting the ribbing I pondered the needle size given in the pattern.  It seemed to me that in order to get gauge with a US 9 you would have to be an incredibly tight knitter (I am not a loose knitter since I changed how I tension my yarn, nor am I a tight knitter).  But then I noted that the designer is Japanese, and I know that the Japanese size their needles differently than we do in the US, so I found a conversion chart online.  A Japanese size 9 needle is 4.8 mm, which falls right between a US 7 (4.5 mm) and a US 8 (5.0 mm).

Pattern:  Saltwind by Keiko Kikuno

Yarn:  Osprey by Quince & Co

Needle:  US 7 (4.5 mm)

Lupine Saltwind - Cast On!

This yarn was a fairly recent acquisition (November 2025) and was purchased for a beautiful cabled vest that I saw in a Quince & Co. marketing email.  It was another of those “love at first sight I must make this” purchases.  The box of yarn has been sitting in my piano room (the home of new acquisitions) and after finishing the Sundrop Top I really wanted to cast it on, even though I still have the Copenhagen Cardigan on the needles.  So, I set the pattern up in knitCompanion, grabbed a skein and caked it up, grabbed some needles and cast on.

Looking at the pattern, it calls for US 9 (5.5 mm) needles, and provided 4 different gauges:  2x2 rib, 1x2 moss stitch, 1 repeat of chart A, and 1 repeat of chart B.  Looking at the yarn label it offers 2 needle sizes and 2 stitch gauges.  And no, I did not swatch.  The US 9 needles were the smaller of the 2 needles mentioned on the yarn label (US 11 - 8 mm was the other).  The only US 9 that I had in my boxes of Addi needles were 32 inch circulars, so I grabbed them and cast on for my selected size.  I didn’t read the instructions completely, however, so I actually only cast on half the required stitches.  Curiously enough, those 120 stitches fit nicely on those 32 inch cables.  Given that I knew the finished measurement was supposed to be 40 inches, I knew that I had screwed something up.  That was when I went back to the instructions and realized that I had only cast on half the required stitches.  Danger, Will Robinson!  Obviously the 2x2 ribbing gauge that I was getting on US 9 needles was going to be way off.  So, I went back to my needle stash and pulled out a US 7 (4.5 mm) needle.  The only one I had in my lace point Addi needle box was a 40 inch circular.  Perfect, I thought, so I cast on again, with the correct number of stitches and started working the 2x2 ribbing again.  I like the fabric, and I think the gauge is looking pretty good so far.  I’ll see how the row gauge works out as a get a few more rounds on the needles.  I will also have to decide what to do about needle size when I get done with the ribbing - do I stay with the US 7 (4.5 mm) or go up to a US 8 (5.0 mm).  Interestingly enough the pattern has you use the same needle size for the ribbing as for the body, which I find a bit odd.  Also, looking at the gauges given for the other stitch patterns, has me wondering what is really going on here.  One way or another I will sort this all out.

And here is the pretty yarn that I am working with.  Curiously enough, when I was watching the tracking information for the package, it said that it came from Lion Brand Yarns, which was very confusing as I had not ordered anything from them in many years.  I did notice on the invoice that it states that Quince & Co. is a division of Orchard Yarn & Thread Company, which is the parent company of Lion Brand Yarns, and also, apparently of Quince & Co.