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Swatch love

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Things I Love Today:

How amazing it feels to knit chunky wool with chunky needles.

Swatches

Pardon the crappy nighttime cell phone pic.

In the last three days, I’ve knit something like 1200 yards of cotton/linen blend on #5 and #6 needles. My hands are killing me. So while the pieces of the sweater were blocking this afternoon… I couldn’t resist whipping out a few swatches.

I love swatching. So little commitment, but somehow so satisfying. I didn’t keep my swatches before I started designing (okay, full disclosure–sometimes I didn’t even swatch at all…), but since I actually have to make sure things fit now, things have changed. I currently keep all my swatches, tagged with the needle size and yarn info, in this little plastic bag I got from the last Stitch N’ Pitch at Dodger Stadium.

Truthfully, I think I’m going to outgrow it soon:

Swatch case

And while I had it out, I felt the need to take all the swatches out for a photo op (cause I’m weird like that, I guess–I want my swatches to get some love!). Remember, these are only since I started designing last summer… that should give you an idea of how much I swatch these days.

Big pile 'o swatches

Isn’t that beautiful?

3 Comments

  1. Pumpkin
    Pumpkin01-09-2012

    Wow, that is a lot of swatching! You are so creative with your patterns!

  2. Tana
    Tana01-10-2012

    I live the brown edging swatch! I have done swatches, usually don’t get to the entire 4 inches, and I always rip them out afterward. Mostly, though, I almost always have to go down one needle size and so I have become a slacker on the swatching front. It had never really occurred to me to save them until I read that the Yarn Harlot makes blankets with them later (theoretically, anyway.)

    I enjoy seeing your creations!

  3. Michelle
    Michelle01-11-2012

    Ugh. I HATE swatching. You’re a a better knitter than I, my friend. :-D What are you planning to do with all your swatches? Perhaps a patchwork swatch quilt?

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