This looks like it will be a good gauge for this pullover, but the background color is a little too dark, clearly -- it's a bit muddier in real life -- for the pattern colors to show up well. I suggested to Julia that the sandy-brown "Oregon Coast" (in the second pattern band) be moved to the main color, and another even-lighter creamy-white added in its place ("Oyster" perhaps), but Julia suggested simply switching "Oregon Coast" for the darker "Bittersweet" main color, so I will try that first. (I would have to get another ball of the new main color anyway ...)
I can certainly tell that the plain rows in between the patterns are much looser in gauge, worse luck, especially when as here I didn't work the two-color rows as carefully as I should for the real thing, not securing the longer floats or being fussy about the joins between needles. (I still have the foolish notion that swatches are "wasteful" and meant to rip this one out and recycle the wool if it didn't work, which is why it's still on the needles!) I do fully intend to throw period-pattern instructions to the wind and knit this pullover in the round, which would mean either consciously making my plain rows tighter -- which resolution usually starts off well but quickly fades as one begins to knit "in the zone" -- or using a different-sized needle, which would be a pain with my non-convertible circulars. Sigh.
On the bright side, the Palette, which was middling-soft just off the needles, has become almost cloudlike in its softness when lightly blocked. I was impressed that Julia actually wanted a knitted garment at all -- Miss "It's Too Scratchy"! -- so this will be a good way to ease her into wearing wool instead of just admiring it on the hoof.
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