Whatcha swatching?

Oh... Nuthing...

*shifty eyes*

... Weeeeeeeellll, maybe perhaps just one swatch... Or two...

Not sure what is the matter, but I'm not that well, and so the swatching for the Blank canvas by Ysholde Tegue project is sloooooooooooooooooow. And confusing. I knitted it in the round on a 3,5mm and I got 23 stitches by 26 rows. But I was also struggling with re-learning to do stranded work with a knitting ring. (Not pictured, I am thinking of doing a Blog post on my knitting tools soon.)

The perfect gauge would be 22 by 30. Which in my eyes was dreadful, because I wanted to knit this sweater in the round on 40cm DPN's and guess what... There are NO quarter sizes. AT ALL!

I guess I was lucky to find such large DPN's new and for a fair price, even though there are only four needles in one package, so you would have to buy two to be able to knit in the round with 5 needles. They are Addi large sock needles and only come in half sizes or whole and range from 2mm to 5mm.

I got the idea to do this in this way from an old painting by the way. The painting dates back to 1400 and was made by Bertram from Minden. In it you see the Madonna knitting away on a red/pink (?) sweater and she has reached the top on the sweater. She probably is decreasing and thinking about the best way to create a collorband. Maybe with Jesus in mind or herself. It is a fetching little sweater after all. Looking a bit closer she is using four needles and fairly thin ones as well.

But when I first saw it, I thought she was using five needles and finally in my mind I would be able to do what other people have done before me. Knit a sweater in the round. Without circular needles (which I cannot use...). Which is a miracle, at least for me.

To get back to the swatch, because I was unsure how to continue I asked the Ysholde Tegue board on Ravelry and I got another miracle. At least if it works that is... Somebody commented that there are old UK needles sizes and they might have old DPN needles they don't use anymore in the sizes I still need. In my eyes that would be amazing and so terribly helpful. They are UK sizes 9, 10, 12 and 13. Which would give me access to 3,75mm, 3,25mm, 2,75mm and 2,25mm long DPN's. I'm keeping my two fingers crossed.

Swatch on...