0.75mm

What a difference 0.75mm makes!!

I fell in love with the Woodland colorway in Palette that Melissa came up with for the Autumn Rose Pullover by Eunny Jang. I thought I'd better be a good girl and do a gauge swatch. Good thing I did! I started out on US 0 (2.00mm) needles because I always knit fingering weight socks on this size needle. My swatch was so pathetically stiff and dense that I gave up half way through. I checked with Melissa, and she knit her swatch on US 2 (3.00mm), so I tried that but was seeing daylight between my stitches. So, I went down to US 2 (2.75mm) and came up with the perfect (for me, anyway) swatch! 0.75mm hardly seems like much, but it sure made a huge difference in the results!

I'm really excited to start this pullover now - it'll be my first true Fair Isle project. I'm going to try to focus on the process and learn how to knit Fair Isle well instead of rushing through it.

Pattern: Autumn Rose Pullover from Simply Shetland 4
Yarn: Palette 2-ply fingering weight Peruvian Highland wool
Needles: Knit Picks 24" nickel plated circular US 2 (2.75mm)

Tags: wip

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Comment by Susan the Blue Lake Knitter on August 10, 2008 at 7:01am: I've used Palette for about 6 pair of socks over the last year or so, and found that a size 2 or 3 was the best for an item of clothing. I also found that in Palette different colors have different weights. The differences are so small, they don't seem to matter, but it has an overall effect of the texture and substance of your knitting. Using Palette for Fair Isle knitting is a natural.

Comment by clockworktomato on August 8, 2008 at 12:29pm: Tina, or any others who have knit this pattern, I have another question for you about this one if you don't mind!

The Simply Shetland 4 book is currently out of stock, so I've got my Knitpicks cart stocked and ready to go when those other yarns come back in stock. Unfortunately, without the book I can't start swatching, but I'd love to try to figure out roughly which needles I'll likely need so I can order everything at the same time. I'm a DPN-lover at heart for socks and I have an Options Interchangeable set, so despite having an entire drawer filled with needles, with these small diameters, it looks like I'll be buying a few new circulars.

I've knit Eunny's "Bayerische" socks and found that her gauge was a couple of sizes above the needle size I needed and, like you, I typically knit fingering weight yarn on a size 0. So I'm guessing that I'll probably need approximately the same sizes that you used though, as you noted, 0.75 mm can make a lot of difference from one knitter to the next.

Where I'm curious is the number of different diameters of needles needed. The pattern info on the Knitpicks site recommends three 16" circs, a 32" circ, and a set of DPNs, though you've mentioned using a 24" here.

I have plenty of DPNs and use 24" circs quite often, but I don't knit a lot of hats, so I don't actually have any 16" needles. Any insight on why so many different needles are needed? I was considering getting a set of 24" Harmony Circular needles in each size up to 3 anyway, but if I need to add in the 32" and 16" needles, I may have to be more selective.

Thanks, all!

Comment by clockworktomato on August 6, 2008 at 10:34am: It's an absolutely gorgeous pattern and color selection, and feeds my love of doing intricate things on small needles, too! I can tell this will be a fun pattern to keep me occupied!

Comment by Tina on August 6, 2008 at 9:35am: Yes, I'm sorry - some of the colors are out of stock. They are worth waiting for - Melissa picked a beautiful combination.

Comment by clockworktomato on August 6, 2008 at 9:33am: Ah, just checked the actual Palette page and it looks like they're just out of stock until September! I'll have to add them to my saved items list and look forward to trying this sweater out this fall!

Comment by clockworktomato on August 6, 2008 at 9:30am: Oh that looks gorgeous, Tina! So much, so, that I just went to add the book and colorway to my cart, as well. I noticed, though, that when I select "add the colors shown in the picture above" that some of the colors (Color 3, 4, and 7, if I remember correctly) didn't fill in on my order page. My guess would be, from looking at the list of colors in the item description, that the colors that aren't filling in are Verdant Heather, Clover, and Semolina. Are these out of stock/discontinued, perhaps?