I’ve decided to make Alison Hansel’s Leftovers Vest using City Tweed DK in Tahitian Pearl and Orca with bright bits of my hand-spindled yarn from our new Corriedale Roving.

My City Tweed yarn arrived last week and I’ve wanted to get even just a bit of handspun finished to show you. I finally decided to settle down and ply up what I had finished and I am thrilled with the result!

My little skein of yarn needs to be given a nice, relaxing bath but I can tell that it will work out nicely to match the gauge I am getting on my City Tweed DK swatch. P.S. I’m using Snowshoe for my swatching.

Doesn’t that look nice? But, remember that if you are going to be knitting your project in the round, you need to knit the swatch in the round. If you knit back and forth, you will not get a reliable gauge to measure. But, there is a trick you can use to speed up the swatching process.

Look at the back of my swatch! I used a trick from Meg Swanson. I knit across, slid the knitting to the other end of my circular needle, pulled the yarn lightly across the back and knit another row/round. You could knit across, cut the yarn and knit again, but what a waste of yarn. This way you can take your measurements and still have yarn to unravel and use if you add a supply emergency at the end of your project. Yes, I am going to knit a bit more, garter stitch about an inch and then cast off. I will wash my swatch, let it dry and then take my gauge measurements.

BTW, I love, love, love knitting with the City Tweed DK. It is so soft and makes a lovely, lightweight fabric. Just the incentive I needed to focus and spindling up the Turqoise bit.