Swatch #1

Yesterday was one of those days in which I was crazy tired all day for no apparent reason. I hate it when that happens, but it wasn't going to stop me from knitting my first swatch for the Masters program. That was my first mistake. You'd think I would have learned by now that I shouldn't knit when I'm tired and cranky - it never ends well. The swatch was simple enough (K2P2 ribbing with garter stitch) and I didn't really have any issues. The tension was pretty even in the garter (always knew I could do that in my sleep!), and my ribbing was adequate - but not good enough. The second K was entirely too loose and was pulling awkwardly in just about every row. At this point I was super cranky, took pictures, and gave up for the night.

I posted pictures of the ribbing in a couple places on ravelry with a cry for help, and my wonderful friends came to the rescue! Apparently this is an extremely common problem and it can be corrected by making the transition between knit and purl just a bit tighter to take up the extra slack. I discovered that there are several ways to do this, and I was ready to try again. At knitting group tonight I re-knit the swatch, this time giving the yarn an extra tug when switching between knit and purl, and I'm thrilled with the results! My ribbing is significantly more even :-D

Now I'm curious to see what happens when I block them. A few people thought that I didn't necessarily need to re-knit my swatch, that the ribbing would even out with blocking, but I'm glad that I did. I learned something new and I hope that my ribbing is more consistent in the future. Can't wait to work on swatch #2 tomorrow!

In other news, my yarn that I dyed over the weekend is finally dry!!! I didn't have time to reskein it tonight, but I'm really excited about it and I wanted to show it off. I'll add new pictures tomorrow (and hopefully put them up for sale) just so long as the sun cooperates. The lighting on these pics suck, but it's better than nothing.

Red Hat

Pumpkin Pie a la Mode

Electric Mint Chocolate Chip

Lime Italian Soda

Blue Goo Goddess