Attempt at a swatch (stranding)

I mentioned previously that the yarns I got had different wraps per inch.  And I mentioned previously that I should have learned that lesson before now.  "Should have" turns out not to be the same as "did".  However, I'm an academic and I can turn any mistake into a useful lesson.

In the swatch, the difference in yarn thickness between the grey and the blues does show up.  But I almost like the way it works.  I wish that it was the background (grey) yarn that was thicker, but all in all I don't mind having a block of colour be more solid than another one.  There are pictures of the right side in yesterday's post.

It did make it more difficult to keep the stitches even, though.  I'm not naturally a "pick" knitter (I mean that I learned "throw" knitting and haven't fully come around to the other side) and so carrying two strands in the pick manner (in this case, one in each hand) doesn't come easily to me at the best of times.  As a result, there is a little bit of puffiness about the strands in the inside-out view.  It's not the worst case of the puffs ever unleashed on the world, but it's made worse by the fact I was dealing with differing yarn gauges.  

I know from experience that one way to address this problem is to knit so tightly (for both yarns) that the knitting gauge is entirely determined by needle size.  It's not an easy option when the yarns are as fine weights as these are.  It's probably not a safe option to follow for a whole sweater, either.  Now that I've put it down in writing, I see some ways in which it shouldn't work.  I swear that it has worked for me in the past.  Maybe some day I'll explore that option further.  

Not with this yarn, though.  I have other plans for this yarn.