Knitting the Ursa Sweater - Casting On

December 17, 2021

I finally decided to cast on my Ursa Sweater, after holding onto the yarn for over a month after buying it. I bought 4 skeins of Echoview Fiber Mill's Ranger Bulky yarn in the color Chickadee in preparation for my second sweater ever and honestly I was (and still am) a little daunted by the project. I've never done anything with half brioche stitch or German short rows, so I'm sure I'll be watching a lot of YouTube tutorials as I go along.

While at work today (I work at Echoview) I knitted up a swatch in preparation for the sweater. My first swatch! A little embarrassing that it took me this long to swatch for any of my projects, as I did not do any planning for the first sweater I made. Surprisingly, with a stroke of luck, that sweater turned out great. I knit a swatch like you're supposed to this time, and got 14 stitches per four inches instead of 11.5. So I blocked the swatch and it's currently sitting in the corner of the back room drying. If it's not the same, I suppose I'll just go up a size? I'm not sure yet.

I feel a little strange starting a blog right now, seeing as longform content has gone out of style in a lot of ways. Perhaps no one will read, but even so, it will be a great way for me to re-live some of my favorite knits long after I've finished them. Maybe someone will even give me some tips on swatch and gauge. I need it.

For blocking, I honestly just ran my swatch under some cool water in the sink at work and then flattened it out and pinned it to an old towel to dry. We have a sample of the Ursa sweater here at Echoview so I measured it to check gauge and it's exactly 11.5. I will get ahold of whichever one of my coworkers made it and ask them to tell me their secrets. While watching the shop today, I read some of the book Slow Knitting by Hannah Thiessen. She talks about a lot of fiber mills that are doing similar work to what Echoview does, and it's a great resource for finding sustainable places to buy your fiber from. I read about a place called Starcroft wool and yarn, located in Rockland Maine. That's where I met my biological father for the first time, at the little food Co-op in Rockland. I'll have to buy some of their yarn and make something abrasive and beautiful from it.

My swatch is finally dry, and I got 12 inches this time instead of 14, so I'm very happy about that. I'm going to call that close enough and cast on!

Cheers