Seriously, this shawl is keeping me from going crazy.
Still sick, but feeling a bit better than last week.
But I started knitting a new shawl. Yay!
It’s a simple half circle (based on the concentric half circle out of Shawl Geometry II), out of the Verdant Gryphon’s Eidos, colorway “fenris.” It’ll be mostly solid stockinette, with some sort of contrasting stripe at the bottom.
It’s being perfect mindless knitting, which is exactly what I need right now.
Seriously, this shawl is keeping me from going crazy.
Because,
all of my fabric, the rest of my yarn, and many of my clothes are currently sitting in giant plastic Ziploc bags. That’s because my apartment needs to be treated for bedbugs (eww!) We don’t have a full blown infestation (thankfully), but the exterminator did find some evidence of them, so everything needs to be washed and sealed up, and then the apartment can get treated. (It’s absolutely amazing, how much stuff will fit in one apartment.)
But all of that means I hit the pause button on The Self-Made Wardrobe project.
Sad face.
I’ll definitely hit unpause and restart the project at some point, but for the moment, I couldn’t keep it going on top of everything else.
Reorienting.
‘One moment please.’
Pause.
shawls, swatches, sweaters
The pile of yarn from a couple weeks ago, has become a pile of swatches.
I’m planning a straight forward stockinette shawl that’s perfect summer knitting, out of this ball of The Verdant Gryphon’s Eidos.
And I pulled out an ancient unfinished sweater to work on as part of The Self-Made Wardrobe.
6 reasons to swatch
We all know that we should swatch before every project. But most of us don’t. Myself included.
Swatching is a tool, just like needles, rulers and books, and not every tool needs to be in every project.
But if I have a question, swatching is usually one of the fastest ways to find the answer. (It’s certainly faster than finishing a whole project.)
I swatch…
- … to figure out how large a piece will be.
- … to see how the final fabric will feel.
- … to clarify a design.
- … to have a record of an idea I don’t have time for at the moment.
- … to try out a color combination.
- … to learn a new technique.
And maybe most importantly I swatch to play. I see swatching as a place to experiment and try new things out with no strings attached.
There are certainly “best practices” when it comes to swatching, but there’s no wrong way to swatch, just plenty of right ways.
This is a snip-it from a larger article in Shawls to Play With, which has 4 patterns and 5 articles all focused around playing and experimenting with your knitting.
