New Swatch

I have finished knitting the swatch using Yarns Plus new 3/5 Tencel yarn which I mentioned a few posts back.  I cast on 40 stitches for this piece. I used 3.75 needles for this sample and really liked the results with this size needle.  I just knit a variety of stitches, stocking stitch, seed stitch and yarn over stitches.  I like the result of knitting with different stitches in the same piece, rather than only one type of stitch for the entire project, besides which this approach keeps me interested.  I used some handpainted Tencel--"plum".  It does its own colour patterning quite effectively.  I particularly like the way the seed stitch softens the colour mixing as compared to the good old faithful stocking stitch. I measured the finished swatch before and after washing and drying in the dryer and blocking each time and found there was absolutely no shrinkage.  The gauge worked out to be about 5 stitches per inch and 5-6 rows per inch.  The finished sample was lovely and soft.  It really becomes soft and silk-like after washing.