She hates me. Yes, it’s true, there is no denying it. The Knitting Goddess hates me. Mind you, perhaps it’s too much to expect a Goddess to save you from yourself.I managed to finish that lovely second swatch I told you about - no mean feat in this house and I like to think I was entitled to feel a little thrill of accomplishment considering what I had to do to get it finished. After all, one more swatch meant one closer to the goal of actually starting my bolero (I usually knit three swatches per ‘large’ project so this meant two down and one to go). It was only after I had finished the swatch, bound it off, washed, blocked, waited for it to dry and started measuring that I realised I had a problem. I had gotten a gauge of 18 sts/4” on 4mm needles before and I need 20 sts/4”. I was measuring 17.5 sts/4” on the new swatch.
Picture this, Fibreholic bent over the dining room table with the measuring tape and a screaming child at her knee because he wants that measuring tape (and I quote here, “Aaaaaaaaa!”. That’s Iain for “Give me measuring tape NOW!”), all the while muttering to herself something like,
“1, 2, 3…17.5. 17.5? How can it be 17.5? I got 18 stitches yesterday. How the hell can I be going up? Unless….aaaak! Ga! Argh!”
Instead of going down a needle size, I went up. Really, I should have realised something was up yesterday when I typed “usually I knit looser than the gauge called for in a pattern...” This is why I swatch, right?
Go me.
In other news, our cycling trip this coming week has been cancelled due to an increase in DH’s workload. No, I’m not happy about it. The ‘guilt’ flowers look nice though. We are going to head to Kejimkujik (see if you can say it!) National Park for Saturday and Sunday night as they will likely be the last camping weekend we have in the near future. Every other weekend this month is already spoken for. One of the few good things I can think of as a result of not going to PEI this weekend for a week of cycling (sob!) is that, with the way I’m knitting swatches, I could not in good conscience take bolero yarn on the trip to work on as I do not yet know what needle size I’d need to accompany me. Yeah, sure. That makes me feel loads better.
2 comments:
The sun'll come out
Tomorrow
Bet your bottom dollar
That tomorrow
There'll be sun!
And if that doesn't work, pour yourself a drink instead!
That was officially a sad sad sack of a post. : ( Put the needles down and walk away for at least 12 hours (for the sake of both you knitting sanity...and possibly your hubby's well-being, ha ha).
Bummer - I dislike swatching, but sometimes I do it anyway. However, my doing a swatch is no guarantee that said item will stay on right gauge, since sometimes I loosen up after a few rows.
Hope your next swatch makes more sense =)
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