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.