Jo Sharp is apparently out to get me. Revenge perhaps for my disapproving comments regarding the degree to which my Cabled Jacket pilled with just two weeks wear. I have been swatching for Rogue and it has taken six goes to get it nearly right. According to the label Jo Sharp Aran Tweed should knit up at 18 st to 4ins/10cm on a 5mm/US8 needle. I think of myself as an average to tight knitter, I was worried I might end up on a 5.5mm, so when we left Sydney I packed my 4.5mm, 5mm and 5.5mm Addis just to be sure. HA!

I finally ended up on a 3.25mm, or US 3, given the Boye needles are in US sizes. That is five sizes smaller than the recommended needle. Pre washing I am actually getting 18.5 st to 4in using the US3s, but that is a hell of a lot closer than the 14 st I was getting on the US8s!

I so don’t want to knit Rogue on my Boye interchangables. I like them, but not that much. Rouge needs Addis, heck this yarn needs Addis - it is so sticky that even aluminium is painfully slow, I shudder to think what it would be like on bamboo. Knowing that I intend to knit Rogue on Addis come hell or high water it was a bit pointless continuing to swatch when I ran out of them and had to move onto the interchangeable needles but I just couldn’t help myself. I had to know roughly what size I was going to need. After all, I told myself, I might need to order new needles (ahh the lure of shopping). I do have 3.25mm Addis, so I may be ok, but really I won’t know that until I get home, swatch again and wash that swatch too. Ugh.

Has anyone else had this much trouble getting gauge with JS Silk Road Aran Tweed? I don’t recall anything but happy knitting with the DK Tweed.

Back to Jesse’s hat and scarf. And I will be making sure to get a copy of Harry Potter for the drive home because there won’t be any knitting to do once that hat and scarf are finished, and they may yet be done before we leave….

*I did take photos of my swatches but the card reader has gone missing so I am unable to share them with you. That’s what happens when my mother and Jesse’s mother get together and tidy up our makeshift office (oh you mean that’s the kitchen table?)!