Our Spring Sprint begins today, and to recap: Spring Sprint is a challenge to GYI customers to knit/crochet/weave at least one entire project, start to finish, in 30 days. You can do it!
Have fun, amaze yourself, and inspire the rest of us! No purchase necessary. No yardage minimums. Work down your stash and/or have fun picking out new yarn from GYI.
Choose your own patterns or use one of our suggested designs — Elizabeth Smith’s Soundtrack sweaters and cowls. Not only are they well-written, beginner-friendly patterns, offering lots of yarn and wear options (either worsted or DK weight, wool or non-wool), but Smith also has helpful videos explaining each technique and term. If you choose to make one of the Soundtrack pieces and purchase your yarn from us, we’ll give you your pattern FREE!


Here’s my swatch for a Summer Soundtrack* sweater using Berroco Remix Light, a DK weight non-wool yarn:

Soundtrack is designed to be worn with 6-10″ of positive ease. My swatch tells me my gauge — the target number of stitches per inch to yield the desired dimensions. Summer Soundtrack has the same gauge for both flat and in-the-round knitting, 24 sts = 4″ or 6 sts/inch. After washing/drying my (flat) swatch, then measuring in several different spots (think of the 5 pips on a playing card) and averaging those measurements, I got a gauge of 6.5 sts/inch on a US 5 needle.
If I wanted 6 sts/inch, I would need to go up a needle size to a US 6 to get larger stitches. However, I’m staying with US 5 because I actually want my finished sweater to fit somewhere between two of the pattern’s sizes — a little bigger than Size 2’s 43.25″ body circumference and smaller than Size 3’s 48.5″. I will still cast on Size 3’s 292 stitches, though. With my higher gauge (6.5, rather than 6 sts/inch), I hope to end up with a 45″ body circumference (44.92″ or 292 ÷ 6.5) instead of Size 3’s 48.5″ (actually, 48.66″ or 292 ÷ 6).
If all this sounds too technical and like too much trouble, let me say that the swatching, washing, and measuring took only about an hour + overnight dry time — an investment of my time I’m happy to make before embarking on a month of knitting that could otherwise produce a sweater I’d NEVER want to wear! I also now know that I love the fabric made with this yarn on a US 5, and I’m already thinking how nice Modern Cotton DK or Pima 100 could be, too.


(You may notice I kept my swatch stitches “live” on a Knitting Barber Cord; I’ll use up my other balls of yarn first, but eventually I may have to unravel my swatch to finish the sweater. By not cutting my swatch yarn, I’ll be able to re-use it after a light steam to unkink it once it’s unknit.)
If you’ll be Spring Sprinting, please email us at info<at>goshyarnitshop<dot>com and share with us what project(s) you’ll be making. In April we hope to feature as many customer FOs here online and in-store as possible to celebrate everyone’s accomplishments!
FYI at GYI: The wonderful Berroco 123 DropShip Program is still going strong — allowing us to order any of their yarns for you, in any amount and color, to be shipped directly to you. It’s as if GYI stocks every Berroco, Lang, Amano, Lopi, and WOOLADDICTS yarn available!