December 05, 2005
I made some progress on my Level 1 swatches up until after the Thanksgiving break.
I got up to Swatch #8 before I got all discombobulated.
So let's tally up the distraction factor:
1 I had to go out of town for the job. Last minute. Commuting to and from. But who's complaining?
2 Attended the presentation for my son as he was honored as Student of the Month,
3 directly followed by the Christmas presentation at his school.
4 Baby girl started at a new babysitter. I'm just too scared to put her back in daycare at this time. RSV nearly killed me. I know she's the one who suffered it. But it nearly killed me!!
5 A million to-do's at the job: reporting, assessing, compiling, organizing, board kissing-upping.
Yeah, I think that's enough to distract me from the knit! But I do plan to get back to it this week.
So far I've noticed some things about my swatches though:
My seed stitch stitches aren't quite as uniform as I'd like to see them at this point. I'm always using this stitch for cotton wash cloths so you'd think it would be better at this. Sucks, huh? Well, at least the edges are straight.
And here's that k2, p2 rib I posted about on the Master Knitting Forum at TKGA. I've tried every way I've read about: combined, tugging up...Whatever you can think of, I've tried it. Still get this. And this is the best of it too! Nah, I won't kill myself over it. After all, it is waaaayyyyy better than what it was when I first started knitting.
Hey! I almost forgot! Notice the blue gingham behind the swatches. Uh-huh! Made my own blocking board with a kit from SWS. I'm so happy with the way it turned out. And if you have ever tried to follow those directions you know what I mean! DH and I were going batty over them. But it was all good.
I'll post a little more later. Right now the baby girl is asking for some attention...
Happy knitting.
Posted by stacey at December 5, 2005 07:18 PM
Comments
Me again . . . what I did to block mine is wet block it (and what I generally do to block most things). That is, I handwash it gently. I use Suave lavender shampoo because I'm cheap, but you can use whatever. Just make sure it soaks for at least 20 min. to get wet all the way through. Then I rinse until the water is clear, and use my trusty salad spinner (really!) to make it drier. For the swatches, I then pinned them onto a flat surface on a towel to the exact dimensions called for in the instructions. This way the edges were perfectly straight (pinned out). Worked great. I did them all at the end, but if you're looking for reassurance, you can block the ones you've done now.
Posted by: Theresa at December 8, 2005 10:27 AM
The swatches look pretty good - have you blocked them yet? When I did my Level 1 swatches, I was pretty concerned about some of them until I washed them - really soaked them in warm water for a while - and pinned them out very carefully. Worked beautifully.
Good luck.
Posted by: Theresa at December 7, 2005 06:42 PM
