Swatchy swatchy

Yesterday I swatched until my eyes hurt. However, this probably says more about the amount of sleep I got this past weekend than it does about anything else. I was swatching for Scheherazade using Lane Borgosesia Cashwool in wine heather. Very, very pertty, and also soft.

Also, slippery. The biggest thing I learned from my swatching experience? NEED WOOD NEEDLES. I'm ordering them today and I hope they'll make it to before my vacation. Casting on in particular was really, really difficult with my standard KP Options. WAY too slick. But, I don't have any Harmony woods in size 4. I'm ordering them today and I hope they'll make it to me before my vacation. No reason why they shouldn't, except that I need them. :oP

I had kind of a hard time at first, but I did get used to it after a while and towards the end of the chart (Pink Lemon recommends that you swatch one of the paisley motifs) I was actually motoring along pretty well...until I, in a fit of idiocy, didn't purl back across the wrong side row! I had to unpick several rows. Thank God it was just a swatch. I would have been really mad at myself if I'd done that across the whole thing.

I want to cast on before we actually leave, partly because I've never done a provisional cast on before and the car does not seem like the best place to attempt it for the first time. Just in case. I don't want to be furious and swearing two minutes into our trip.

Anyway, armed with the experience of swatching, I took all the charts, got out a marker and a ruler, and put a colored line over the grid lines every 5 stitches. Hopefully this will avoid some of the eye-crossing I was experiencing and make the counting a little less tedius. I find on my cross stitch patterns that the bold lines every 10 stitches helps me out a lot, so I am employing that principle here with this pattern and hoping it is just as effective.

Along with my Harmony needles I am ordering some stikki clips. I will have to make sure I am well organized in my seat with all my stuff put together where it won't flop around.

Am I crazy for taking on a laceweight project for this trip? Maybe. I'm going to take some sock yarn...just in case.

Low-yield Weekend

This weekend was so busy that I had hardly any time to knit. I put a little over a round on the Witterings Hat on Friday, and then didn't pick up the needles until Sunday, when I worked on my cape. I got about two inches done on it, which was nice. However, I think the fact that I have ripped out the heel on my pedicure sock for the third...no, I think it's actually the fourth time. Last time was the third, wasn't it? I don't remember anymore. Anyway, I ripped it out again. It was too long, it didn't fall in the right spot on my heel - I just wasn't happy with it. I haven't been able to touch the thing since.

Instead, I knit a swatch from KnitPicks Essential in Riverbed Multi. I was unreasonably pleased that my guage came out to exactly 8 sts to the inch on #2 needles. I like exactitude. Of course, we'll see how exact it is after it's been washed.

I got my friend's measurements for the Urban Necessity pattern, so I am pleased that I can start that soon too. I do think I will swatch this one as well, too. I hate taking the time to swatch because I would rather just get on with the project, but...better safe than sorry in this case, I think, since she is not here to try it on in progress.

I wound a ball of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock that I also plan to swatch and wash. I have enough for a pair of socks each in the YarnMarket exclusive colorways Irises, Snowscapes, and Starry Nights. I actually gasped when I saw the Starry Night yarn. I am not really a fan of Van Goph in general or that painting specifically, but the yarn is so beautiful!