Thursday, March 24, 2005

Teeter Totter

I'm having a bit of a tug of war with myself. I really like the Emu Superwash DK I got recently for my wool afghan. It's not *quite* as soft as the Filatura di Crosa, but I like how it's working up. I'm having visions of a sweater or cardigan in the sage colour... plus I think I should get some more balls for my afghan.

Pros:
  • I like the fabric it makes, and think it will make a nice sweater or cardigan.
  • It's a good price ($2.75/50g ball).
  • It's machine washable
  • It's wool.
  • I could use a few more sweaters
  • I'd really like another cardigan, less baggy than my previous one.
  • The yarn is on sale, and may disappear soon.


Cons:
  • I have a bunch of "projects in waiting" that should be done before I buy yarn for yet another project.
  • I may find another nice yarn at a similar or better price.
  • I've been spending too much money lately, especially on yarn.
  • I don't know how many balls I'd need for this unknown sweater/cardigan.


*sigh*

So, my friendly readers... if you're buying yarn for your stash to eventually make a sweater, how much do you buy?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I used to know a forumla for it, but now I can't remember! It was yardage/meterage based.

I do know that you can basically take a sweater you currently have that you like the fit of and weigh it and from that you can pretty much gauge how much yarn you need.

[I bought yarn to make a sweater for myself and I bought 12 hanks (complete overkill, even for an XL sweater) of 4oz (241 yd) ww yarn from beaverslide dry goods. I know I am going to have leftovers! ]

noricum said...

Thanks! Hmmm... I wonder if my grocery store will mind me putting a few sweaters on their produce scales... ;)

I've overbought for all my sweaters so far too... for my purple stripe sweater ("Vertigo"), I bought 10 100g balls, and used less than 8. For my red turtleneck sweater, I bought 8 6oz balls, and only used 6. If I do buy this yarn, I'll probably make sure to have extra... extra is better than not quite enough! ;)

Jewels said...

Extra yarn is always better silly girl!! My first thought when I petted the EMU superwash was some yummy warm winter house socks, but haven't started them yet. Yep - I say go ahead and order it - you can always use leftovers in the afghan, right?

noricum said...

I think I'm teetering towards getting it! ;) And I figured out how to calculate how much I need... I weighed that square of plain sc! It's 7"x7", and weighs 25g. Now I just need to figure out what area I want to make my sweater, and I'm all set! (I like being a math person!)