Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Why yes, swatching IS cheating

Last night when I got home from a very stressful day at work I was pleasantly surprised to find my yarn order for the Mary Tudor cardigan had arrived! I tried to convince myself that knitting a swatch wasn't cheating. Didn't work, I felt guilty just thinking about it.

So instead, I pulled out the Silken Slippers and finished them up. Aren't they cute?







Feeling much better about my WIP situation, I tore open the package sitting on the bed and dove into the yummy yarn. I sorted it all out by color, preparing to knit just a few rows of a swatch (surely just a few rows isn't cheating) and groaned. Most likely the only person reading this who will understand why what I am about to say is so stupendously idiotic is Marina. I stared at the balls of yarn and the color chart in the book, trying to put everything in order, and wondered how on earth I could have NOT ordered Oasis and Ginger, and why on earth I had so many balls of Pistachio and Yellow Ochre. Ummmmmm you big dumb@$$ the color names of the yarn you bought are different than the colors in the book! Of course, this realization didn't hit me until I had stuffed all the yummy yarn into a bag and had given up on the idea of knitting the few rows of a swatch. That's ok, since even a few rows of a swatch would have been cheating right?

So I pulled out the Lake Park gloves and finished up the first one. Any idea how hard it is to photograph a glove on your right hand by yourself when you are righthanded? This is the only photo out of about 10 that was decent enough to save.



Tonight I cast on for the second glove and knit this much ribbing .....



and then .....



OK I FREAKING CHEATED!!



All in all, I'm quite pleased with the substitutions I had to make due to discontinued colors. I don't think I'll be changing any of them. The only modification I plan to make on the cardigan is to shorten it. Normally I need something no longer than skimming the hips or I look shorter than I am. Sometimes I can get away with something longer, but I don't this is one of those times.

Now to get back to that second glove so I don't become a complete cheat by casting on the sweater!

3 comments:

Katherine said...

Hee hee! I would have cheated too. It's going to be beautiful.

Marina said...

First, love the pattern of those gloves.

Now, about the colours, you're getting the names all mixed up!

Campion Oasis = Jamieson's Pistachio
Campion Ginger = Jamieson's Yellow ochre

I think you've got all the right colours. It looks great.

Susan said...

That's is a gorgeous swatch - the finished object will be amazing!