An Experiment

Earlier this year Knit Picks came out with their City Tweed line of yarn, in both DK weight and Heavy Worsted (the same weight I usually think of as Aran weight - 18 stitches over 4 inches). I fell in love with the colors, then checked out the fiber content - in the great words of Scooby Doo, "Ruh Roh!" It had acrylic. Upon re-reading the fiber content though (clearly, the colors spoke to me), I realized it said the neps (the little bits of fiber that make the color dots that make a tweed a tweed) were in an acrylic web. That was the only acrylic in the yarn. It seemed to me that the web should theoretically be tucked into the yarn as it's spun and actually only be on the surface of the yarn in tiny, tiny bits. I realized I needed to buy a skein and give it a whirl and see if the small percentage of acrylic would be enough to trigger my allergies.

What you see here is the beginning of my experiment - Fetching mitts made in Knit Picks City Tweed DK (in the Enchanted colorway). I figure if the acrylic doesn't bother me on the inside of my wrists, I'm pretty clear to use this yarn. I don't know if I'd ever trust it enough to use it for a turtleneck, but since I seem to eat, sleep, and breathe cardis, one of those should do just fine assuming my little experiment goes OK. This yarn is extremely soft (high Merino content) and has a bit of shine (alpaca content) and of course the little spots of tweedy color are just fun. I've just started the cuff of my first mitt, but these should work up pretty quickly.

I'm thinking about doing a thumb gusset instead of the thumb called for in the pattern because a gusset follows the actual shape of the hand better, but I haven't gotten to that point in the mitt yet, so I'll make the decision when I do. I've also dropped the needle size down to a US 4 (3.5 mm) which has dropped my gauge down (to I don't really know what - I'm eyeballing things here). The pattern is written to be 7 inches around unstretched. I'm reasonably certain that that size will come flying off my hands during some random, dramatic gesture while I'm talking to someone. It's bad enough to have to listen to my ramblings, you sure don't want to be attacked by knitwear - I'm pretty sure that's NOT how we convince more people that they want to learn to knit.

I hope you all have a great weekend! I'm thinking of setting myself up as a zoo. I figure with 2 dogs, 3 cats, and 12 fish that should be good for something - maybe I can sell T-Shirts!