Knitting with Sari Silk Ribbon

I've been fascinated with sari silk ribbon for quite awhile and recently bought a few skeins to experiment with.  Mainly I used it in jewelry, but you know that if I have hanks of fiber around for long enough, I'm going to try knitting with it!

I worked up a small swatch - enough to teach me a few things.  First of all, my size 10 1/2 needles were not big enough - the fabric was too tight.  Those giant needles that come in sizes such as 20 and 35 would make the fabric a lot looser, but I'm not a big fan of that super loose fabric.  The bottom portion is garter stitch and the top is stockinette.  As a whole, I like how the stockinette turned out but the rows of garter stitch underneath do add some nice texture.

So the pros - it's really soft.  And it has that beautiful silk shimmer.  And I can see it taking up indigo differently at different spots which could lead to an amazing looking fabric!  The cons - it has knots.  At places, lots of them.  Since I was just experimenting, I pushed the knots to the back but if one was really knitting something you would have to cut on each side of the knots and sew the fabric together.  And you'll have to do that with some of the sewn joinings as they vary between sewn end to end and being sewn with a seam.  Those joins with a seam act a lot like a knot, making a big lump in the fabric you're knitting.

The bottom line?  I'm still intrigued by knitting with sari silk ribbon and see enough promise that I'm going to try using slightly bigger needles to loosen the fabric up a bit and then see what I can come up with for a project, since I wasn't overly fond of any of the ones I found on Ravelry.  I just have to see what a finished, knitted project in the silk does in an indigo dye bath! 

Happy Creating!  Deborah