Plied wool and acrylic are elastic--they spring back when stretched--so I
would think they would do a better job of helping the sweater keep its
shape. Cotton and silk are inelastic, and hand knitted garments of cotton
and silk seem to stretch with every wearing.

Good luck, and keep us posted!

Georgia
www.georgiamorgan.net/html/knitting.htm

"Melinda Meahan - take out TRASH to reply" wrote in
message ...
Hiya, I have thoughtfully pondered everyone's advice and have a thought
and a related question:

I really am pretty committed to doing this cuff-to-cuff sweater first
just to test my endurance to see if I will last through finishing an
entire sweater (after all, we are talking about something like a size
28-30 here) and have something that will need minimal finishing when I
am through clicking needles so that I don't end up with a UFO, so I
don't want to change the pattern. But I had a thought to combine one
strand of the Incredible yarn with one strand of some regular worsted
weight or bulky weight yarn to knit up on larger-size needles (my set
goes up to a size 15 so I could probably use bulky weight) and sort of
split the difference between the colors I love and what the pattern will
handle. I had some old worsted weight light-tan acrylic yarn around
(left over, I think, from a sweater I made my now-23-yo son when he was
3 or 4) and tried a few rows for a sample, and the feel is okay. Lots
less scratchy than just using the Incredible yarn itself.

I get this image of using half bright white or bright golden yellow --
haven't decided which -- and half black and alternate in two-row or
four-row stripes to have a subtle striped pattern -- this should match
the color of the Incredible that I have (color City Lights on this web
page: http://cache.lionbrand.com//yarns/incredible.htm) and complement
it well. Or even possibly find one yarn that had colors to match all
the City Lights colors reasonably well, I could rotate them all as a
second yarn. Then, as someone suggested, I can knit it tightly to help
it keep its shape better.

Does this sound like a good idea to anybody? If so, would cotton,
acrylic, or wool yarn be best in helping the sweater to keep its shape?
My preference is listed in order, but I will gladly defer to the
collective wisdom of the group. (One of my strengths has always been
knowing when I don't know enough to be able to make a good decision and
subsequently asking for help.)

Seriously, if you think this is an incredibly (pun intended LOL) bad
idea, PLEASE TELL ME!!!! If this inspires you to think of an even
better idea, ditto. If you think it's a good idea, I'd like to know, too.

I am waiting with bated breath for your replies.

Thanks bunches,
Melinda