Date: Tue, 25 Apr 1995 16:24:46 -0400
From: JamieCW@aol.com
To: Multiple recipients of list <knit@geom.umn.edu>
Subject: KNIT: Variegated yarn and others

VARIEGATED YARNS:  The effect you get with these depends on many things.
 First, there is the length of yarn per color.  The longer the length, the
stripier a stockinette section will be.  The width of the garment affects the
look as well (stripes tend to widen as the garment is narrowed).  Gauge and
stitch type both have big effects; different types of stitches use varying
amounts of yarn, and certainly a stitch that is 1/4 of an inch wide uses more
yarn (and more, therefore, of a color) than one that is 1/6 of an inch wide.
 Lace patterns, slip stitches, and variations on moss stitch tend to make the
fabric look more randomly colored, whereas the stripes can be painfully
obvious on stockinette and cables.  You can mute the striping by knitting 2
strands of yarn together (one variegated, one plain), or make it more random
by knitting both ends of the ball of yarn (one end for 1-2 rows, then the
other end).  Variegated yarns can also be used to good effect as the
background or foreground of a fair isle pattern.

I learned these things (and much more) in a class on dealing with handpainted
yarns from Jean Lampe.  The most important thing is to make a big swatch (in
the round if your garment will be) whose width multiplies into the width of
your garment piece.  For example, if you'll be knitting a sweater that is 44"
around, try an 11" wide swatch, remembering that every 2nd row (if knitted
flat) or 4th round (if knitted round) will line up.  Jean says that even with
all the general guidelines and experience in the world, you'll still need to
swatch to see how a given yarn will knit up in a given garment.

Jamie (jamiecw@aol.com)