August 2008 Archives
The most common question about the Silk Lace yarn I get asked is "What size needle should I use?" I am sure few find it helpful when I tell them it is a matter of personal preference and suggest swatching until they are happy with the result. But, I realize nobody wants to spend a lot of time swatching YOs and K2togs with a slippery yarn, so hopefully this will help guide your choices.
I swatched the Travelling Vine pattern, found in Barbara Walker's "A Treasury of Knitting Patterns" on page 219, using the Silk Lace in "Royal" on US 0-3 needles. All swatches are 36 stitches across and 4 pattern repeats in length. They were all wet-blocked lightly.
The US 0 needle creates a denser fabric that allows one to see the lace pattern easily. The swatch measures 4" by 4" and if I were knitting a wrap that was more for warmth than for show, this is probably the needle size I would choose.
The swatch on the US 1s measures 5" by 5" and is a bit lighter than the swatch on US 0s. The jump in size from US 0 to US 1 is big, so if you wanted to knit less and have a larger sized garment while still maintaining the integrity of the knitted fabric, US 1s make sense.
The US 2 swatch measures 6" wide and 5.75" long. It obviously is a lot lighter in feel and the knitted stitches show their openness. The lace pattern is still obvious, but it becomes less about knitted fabric versus the YO holes and more about the overall openwork of the lace.
The US 3 swatch measures 6.5" long and 6" wide, so virtually no difference in width from the US 2 swatch, yet the fabric is much more gossamer.
Looking at them next to each other makes the size difference easily obvious, not just of the knitted stitches, but in the YOs. One important thing to consider when choosing a needle size, but also when actually choosing a color of yarn, is the difference in density of the fabric and how that changes the appearance of the color of the lace in the finished garment. If you are knitting with a brightly or darkly colored yarn, the lace might show up quite easily on US 3s but not as much on US 0s; the brightness will be diffused on a larger needle size while a bright color on a smaller needle size might overwhelm the person who wears the garment.
To get a better visual idea of how the needle size affects the dimmensions, here are the swatches stacked up, from smallest to largest.
And then again, but with the orange lines delineating the edges of each swatch.
Next up: Joining yarn with as little effort as possible.
For me, the choice of silk is always an easy one. I adore the crisp, cool smoothness; the inherent delicateness of silk, despite its strength as a fiber and the warmth it provides as a garment. It is a natural choice for lace. Delicate openness paired with shiny softness. What could be better?But silk has its drawbacks as a knitting or crochet fiber. As a yarn, it lacks the resiliency of wool, creating potential problems for blocking. It is the slipperiest of fibers, which can drive a knitter insane struggling to keep the loops on the needle. The fineness of the silk lace, combined with this slip, makes joining in new strands and weaving in ends, never a pleasant task, even trickier.
This series of posts on the silk lace yarn will address needle choice, joining in a new strand of yarn, and finally, blocking. I hope you enjoy the series and find the information valuable and helpful.
(Sundara Yarn Silk Lace in Graphite, Black over Violet, Ruby Port, Toasted Orange over Pistachio and Basil over Buttercup)
