New Yarn

I have some patterns that call for using ribbon yarns. I selected a pattern for a simple shell from the growing stash of patterns I've collected. (The link is not the exact pattern, but the style is similar). The pattern says the sweater can be made in gauges of 15 - 20 stitches per four inches. My pattern did not specify yarn, so I thought it would be a good pattern to try.

The pattern showed three sample swatches with different yarns. One was 100% cotton, one was 100% rayon, and one was a rayon, polyester, metallic thread mix. This emboldened me to go ahead and plunge into the synthetic world with an Ebay purchase.

I fell in love with the peacock blue color of this yarn. And it was within my budget! (When will I learn that this is probably a big red flag?!) The yarn I bought is 100% polyamid microfaser. When I read that, it did not tell me much. It may as well have said 100% synthetic.

When I got my beautiful blue bundle in the mail I learned what polyamid microfaser is. I felt a strand of the yarn and it struck me that I have seen this fabric and felt this texture before. Then it dawned on me: It is interfacing material. I had bought hundreds of half-inch wide yards of bright blue, non-fusible interfacing!!!

Then I had a conversation with myself. "Okay. This will be interesting. How can I save this project? How did I get to the point where I need to save a project I have not even swatched yet!"

The yarn felt interesting. Not bad at all, just different. How it would launder? Here it is unwashed:
then wet from hand washing with dish soap:

and dry again: It looks like it will be just fine.

I made five swatches to find a needle size I liked and to fit one of the pattern guides. Also, it was a new stitch pattern and I wanted to be sure I liked it in this strange fabric. The pattern is called Mistake Rib stitch (Stitches in multiples of four + 3 stitches: *K2, P2* Repeat ending with K2, P1). How aptly named for this project!


And so I began.