Anne, again
I finished knitting my stash of Schaeffer Anne a few weeks ago. Of course I didn’t finish closing the toes and blocking them, which I’ve now done. Here are some of the results:
The top pair is size Small, and the other three are all size Medium. All are knit with the 54 needle cylinder on the Legare 400.
Schaeffer Anne is 60% Merino Superwash 25% Mohair and 15% Nylon and the skeins have a generous 550 yards/4 oz.
When I started knitting with Anne we had a few spats.
To begin with, the skeins are tied a little differently than most other skeins I buy. Eventually, I sorted that out and now find them easy to wind.
My bigger battle was getting a result that pleased me with a 54 stitch sock. I loved how the yarn performed on the 72 needle cylinder, but had one froggit after another on the 54. I’m a slow learner with a lot of things, and this is one case where it took me quite a while to figure out how to knit Anne in a 54 stitch sock and get a result that pleases me.
As with most things knitting, it’s all about tension. After too many froggits at my normal base tension, I started increasing until I hit a point that did what I want with the yarn. Now, at a quarter turn tighter, I get a pooling of colours that is more or less replicated in the two socks, and doesn’t look like I spilled the dye.
That mastered, Anne is now one of my favs.
I’ve had trouble with Anne in the past, but I’m very much a novice CSM knitter. Would you mind telling me how many stitches per inch you get with this yarn? Thanks!
Your colors look like oil spills; in a good way of course! They make me want to go out and buy some Anne. Love the stuff and it wears very well.
My tension is set to get 11 -12 rows per inch.
On the 72 needle cylinder I’m closer to 11/inch and on the 54 it’s closer to 12.
The wee bit of extra tension on the 54 delivered the pooling in the photos. When the tension was closer to 11/inch it was a dog’s breakfast!
And…. when I knit the foot I always hold onto the heel, with or without the heel weights still on. With Anne on the 54 , I find that ‘how hard’ I hold on, can make a difference in the pooling…..too hard and the pool starts to go vertical….back off a little and the pooling starts to swirl. I guess its one of those sweet spots;o)
Alas Anne costs about the same as good oil! But I’m kind of like my truck… it likes premium, and so do I ;o)