Wednesday, March 11, 2009

The s word

I never do it. Why would I? I make felted purses, why in the world would I want to or even need to? But I have never felted cables before. I've seen tons of patterns with felted cables so I didn't think I had to do it. I almost didn't do it. I don't know what came over me, but I decided I should give it a try.

I did it. I really did. Yes, I (gulp) swatched. Please don't wash my mouth out with soap! And don't tell the folks over in Ravelry's Anti-Swatching League or I might get kicked out.

Here is the result of my swatch. Not too good I know. "Where's the cable?", you say. And to think I only ran it through one cycle. When I'm doing a bag I almost always run it through twice. In case you're wondering, yes it is the same kind of yarn just a different color. It's a good thing too, since I don't know how many more of these I will have to do to get it right. Maybe it's because the yarn I'm using practically felts when you breathe on it. Hmm, back to the drawing (aaack, swatching) board for me. There goes another night without productive knitting.

3 comments:

sheep#100 said...

I haven't started a pair of felted clogs yet - even though I have the pattern and the yarn - because I need to swatch and felt it and we have a front-loader that takes forever to felt stuff.

PS - I knit while walking in the mall exactly the same as if I were sitting at home.

Anonymous said...

I never swatch either... Who cares if the mittens I knit with my 11-month old neice in mind end up being big enough for my brother-in-law? Real men aren't afraid to wear pink, right?

I love scarves, afghans, and felted purses for this very reason... who needs a swatch when it doesn't REALLY matter what size the FO is.

Becky said...

Swatches? We don't need no stinkin' swatches!

I rarely bother with them either. Lately, all I seem to be making are lap blankets and baby sweaters. Lap blankets you just knit until they're big enough or you run out of yarn (whichever comes first). The family baby sweater pattern is mostly garter stitch and stretches to fit anything from a newborn up to 1 year, so gauge isn't vital with that either.

The only thing I ever really swatched for was the first hat attack, and when I couldn't get gauge with any needle or yarn currently in the house I decided the whole thing was silly and I didn't want to do it anyway!