Swatchfest

Michelle was looking through her stash and realized that she had enough Goa cotton yarn to knit two Wonderful Wallaby sweatshirts. She started to dutifully swatch and the fabric was really too dense. She kept going up needle sizes because of the texture of the fabric. It became a marathon swatch.

Goa is bulky cotton and the Wallaby is based worsted weight yarn. She ended up on size 8 needles which was a slightly higher gauge than the pattern called for. We did the match and found that she could follow the instructions for the size 4 and end up with a size 6/7.
She is totally a sweater ahead of me in the Jordan Lace Sweater by Wendy Bernard. We are both knitting our sweaters in Louet Euroflax. She knit the body of the sweater in about 10 days. I had to finish my Bentley shrug for graduation and then had company and couldn't really focus on lace. Excuses, I know. I'm jealous of her progress and how good her sweater looks. Her sweater body looks awesome. She's started the yoke/sleeve. I am totally motivated now!
I started my swatch in the Euro flax on a #4, then I tried a #3, then I tried a #1. The first #3 and #3 needle sizes were too big and the #1 was too small. Goldilocks and I thought #2 was just right. I've take a break from starting it to write this post. I have to admit that I have benefited from Michelle going first.

From her experience, we learned that knitting the first row before joining in the round makes it less likely to twist. We also learned that putting stitch markers around every pattern repeat keeps you honest and simplifies staying on track.

Michelle claims it's easy once you get going on it. So far the pattern is easy to memorize.
Lois is just past the halfway point to the armholes in her sweater. The color is so pretty! This is yarn she bought when Knitting Central was closing and she's very happy to have married it to a project.
Linda A. came today. It was great to see her, it's been a while. She's ready to do the finishing on her #09 Textured Shell featured in Knit Simple Magazine, Spring/Summer 2010 issue. She revisited how to work a 3 needle bind off and then we discussed how to do a slip stitch crochet around the neckline and armholes. The sweater is a gift for her daughter, it's a really cute shell.