January is chugging along being its dark and icy self. It is freezing here in Chicago, and I am definitely getting a lot of use out of my hand knits. Thank God for sweater weather, right? It makes me wonder what non-knitters do to make themselves feel better in these wintery months.
I would love to cast on for a kid’s cardigan this week. To that end, I swatched for the Family Cardigan 8225 from Sirdar. I was planning to add a very thin band of contrast color along the hem and the cuffs in the style of the Basic Kid by Lori Versaci. You guys, I have so many questions about my swatch.
Sirdar Spinning Ltd 
Versaci Knits sweaters – love this contrast
The pattern gauge is 22 sts / 28 rows per 4″ square. I got gauge horizontally, but my row gauge is way off. I came out with 22 sts / 32 rows. That is a pretty big difference, no? I usually don’t worry about row gauge because I just knit until I get to the length I want. But seeing as how this will be my first seamed cardigan, I’m a little concerned. Should I still plan to add rows to the pieces? Do I need to space them out so the button holes don’t look weird? Can I just block out the difference or is that too much to solve with pins alone?
I am planning to use Quince & Co. Chickadee, a sport weight merino, in the colorway sorbet for the main color, and leek for the contrast. To add to my troubles, a lot of pink dye was in the water after I washed my swatch. Now I’m worried that it’s going to bleed into my contrast color. I am thinking that I should wash the yarn ahead of time, but I need to figure out how to do that. Ugh.
I hope your week is treating you well! I would love to hear any insights you have on my badly behaved swatch.
A Yarn Tail 