Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Swatch Marking

I'm swatching some Garnstudio Drops Alpaca to make the Ogee Tunic from Knitting Nature.




It calls for 23 sts = 4" on size US 4 ndls. It's a slippery yarn on the addi turbos so I'm death-gripping it and am up to size 6... still not getting gauge. As I go up a needle size, I separate and mark as follows...

Started with 4's, switch to US 5, knit one row, next row, knit 5, (yo, k2tog, knit 2) 5 times, knit across, knit one more row. Next row, start gauge pattern for more swatching.


Next section, switch to US 6, knit one row, knit 5, (YO, k2tog, knit 2) 6 times, knit rest of row. Knit another row. Next row, re-establish swatch pattern.


Rinse, repeat. This way you can tell which needle you used in which section without having to use any markers. If you get up to double digits (say US 10), then do two rows with the YO's till you get the number of holes you need.

The problem with this tip is if you're using the metric system. I've got no solution. Except for reverting back to some sort of marker (pinning a piece of paper to it?) or writing your results in a notebook.

Bonus tip: The Garnstudio site has hundreds of free patterns. Knitting and crochet!

In other news, I got the first pattern for the Sockamania Knitalong! Very exciting! Of course, my printer isn't working. I've spent the past hour "trouble-shooting". After I take T to school and put D down for his nap, I'm going to call the HP people. (sigh)

Before I sign off, I want to mention a couple more knitting sightings. These were on TV. Last nite's Deal or No Deal had a 19 year old tennis player and her family was there for support. Did anyone else notice the mom's sweater? I told Dave, "I bet she made that." He bets she didn't. It was really pretty!

The other sighting is from Season 3 of The Shield. The show is actually in season 6 but I've been renting the previous seasons from the library. If you haven't seen this show, I recommend it, but only if you have a strong stomach. It's pretty brutal and graphic with the violence. It's about a "corrupt-cop-with-a-heart-of-gold" kind of thing. In season 3, there's a dog handler that the main character (Vic) hooks up with. When they first show her, she's wearing a pretty sweater. The other times they show her, she's wearing this beautifully knit, longish, shawl-collared, wrap cardigan. It's grey and you see it in several of season 3's episodes. Gorgeous!

Still swatching, Ruth!

4 comments:

Chris said...

That is a good tip. :)

I got the pattern, too! (Eventually.) It did print (um, here at work *cough cough*) - good luck with yours!

knitnzu said...

I haven't seen those, but did you see the recent (like a year or two ago, not 20 years ago) Charlie and the Chocolate factory movie? The family was surrounded by knit and crocheted items.

Anonymous said...

I stumbled on your blog when I was searching Technorati for any clue to what that Deal-or-No-Deal-mother-of-the-contestant's sweater was! I loved it, and I would definitely make it if I could find the pattern. (Or I may be stubborn enough to try to design a similar one, myself.) I'm glad I'm not the only knitter out there who noticed the woman's lovely sweater. :)

(I blogged about that same sweater here)

Tammy said...

I just caught a couple minutes of that Deal or No Deal but I remember thinking the same thing about the mom's sweater. I agree.