Swatching: Get to know Keystone

Join us as I spotlight each Kelbourne Woolens yarn, discussing the characteristics, gauges, and go over a few different swatches and stitch patterns. Want more? View previous Get to know... posts here! Enjoy!Next in the series is a brand new yarn in the Kelbourne Woolens lineup, Keystone.

Yarn Label

As mentioned previously, yarn labels tell you a lot about the yarn, and ours are no exception.

A few notes:
Fiber content:
Keystone is a bit of a departure as it is the only yarn in the Kelbourne Woolens line with a high percentage of acrylic fiber. Made from 70% deadstock acrylic and 30% wool, we took great care when considering the acrylic in Keystone. Working directly with our Germantown mill, we’re utilizing 59,000+ pounds of acrylic fiber abandoned in their warehouse. By using deadstock materials, we’re helping reduce waste in the textile industry and giving new life to existing resources.

By blending the same wool that is used in Germantown, Germantown DK, and Germantown Bulky with the deadstock acrylic, we're extending the use of the fiber, which in turn, reduces waste and increases supply chain efficiency.

Yarn Characteristics

Keystone is a classic 4-ply worsted weight yarn. Worsted spun, the plies are smooth, and the high acrylic content lends a nice (but not too bright) sheen. Spun from dyed fiber, most of the colors read as solids, but a few, like foggy and lawn are blended from colors with a greater variation in shade, creating really beautiful subtle heathers. 

The blend of acrylic and wool creates a really soft yarn with crisp stitch definition.

The Swatches

Stockinette Stitch:
Wire Sweater Junior by TwinKnits is a classic cable pullover worked from the top down. I had a brief moment thinking it would be super cute to knit the girls and their 3 cousins matching sweaters and then realized I would never finish in time to have all 5 fit at once. But I could see knitting one sweater for one child and then passing it down.

Despite being mostly cables and moss stitch, the Wire Sweater Junior lists the gauges as 18 stitches and 28 rows in Stockinette and Moss stitch, so I started with classic stockinette. 

US 7 / After blocking: 18 sts and 26 rows = 4″

I'm not going to bore y'all with my thoughts on row gauge (you can read them in my Scout post here if you so choose), but the tl;dr is that a slight difference with row gauge is totally fine as long as I count rows!One of the above swatches was washed in the machine, the other was wet blocked in soak. Bet you can't tell the difference! Since the stockinette was lovely, I went a step further and swatched in the cable pattern.

Cable Chart:
US 7 / After blocking: main cable panel = 4.5"

This swatch was more of an experiment in stitch pattern vs checking my gauge, and I am happy to say that the Keystone works up and looks lovely in cables!Crochet:
Keystone lends itself spectacularly to crochet, both for wearing and the home. I swatched two different patterns, the Tranquility Blanket by Gootie (Agat Rottman) and Cozy Days Daisy Blanket by Stephanie Jessica Lau.

Tranquility is a crochet-along that features ten strips of different stitch patterns. I admittedly found the format of all the posts to be a bit of a slog, but there is a PDF for purchase that seems much easier to navigate, which I would highly recommend. The violet stitch (worked below in dusty rose), has a given gauge of 14 hdc and 9.5 rows to 4". 

H-8 / After blocking: 13 sts and 8 rows = 4".

I'm off gauge-wise, but I also really like the fabric and am not sure if going down a hook or two would be beneficial to both the fabric and my crocheting enjoyment. If I were to make the blanket, I'd do a little math to determine a cast on amount that resulted in the size I was looking for. 

Cozy Days is a classic Granny Square blanket with bite size construction that makes these types of blankets so fun to make. The pattern calls for a bulky yarn and size 8mm hook, but since I'm using a worsted weight, I used the same H-8 (5 mm). H-8 / After blocking: granny square: 5" x 5".

The squares in the pattern measure 7" x 7" with a finished blanket size of 45" x 52". With my smaller squares, I'd have a finished blanket of 33' x 38", which is a sweet size for a baby, so I'd probably stick with that. With 5 squares already done, it feels silly not to finish, so it is getting added to the pile of WIPs!

What will you make with Keystone?