A New Sweater

After finishing my Magical Sweater of Awesomeness, I cast on a new sweater over the weekend.  I fell in love with Clair de Lune as soon as I saw it the first time, but I wasn't ready to start it or I didn't know what yarn I wanted to use, so I just went on with my life.  This weekend I realized I had enough yarn (Nerd Girl Yarns Winning in Cassandra) in the right color to make this (I feel like it should be a light neutral color).  The Winning is classified as a heavy laceweight, but after blocking it blooms into a heavy fingering or sport weight.  The silk and linen fiber content would make it very wearable here in Texas.

The first thing I did was knit a swatch.  I used some Winning in a different color (leftover from a crocheted shawl from last year), mostly because it was already wound.  Then I put it in a washing bag and tossed it in with a load of lights I was washing.  A trip through the washer and dryer gave me a beautiful, soft swatch and the yarn had bloomed into the stitches nicely.

Based on the swatch (and knowing the swatches lie), and the fiber content (both linen and silk are drapey fibers with no memory), I decided to knit the smallest size, XS, even though according to the measurements I should be in the S.  I had already checked Ravelry projects and found that most people went down a size or wished they had.  Knowing that my yarn will likely relax and grow as I wear it, I think this is the right choice.

I've just barely begun to knit this, but I'm already reminded how much I love this yarn.  I really should use this base for more projects!