Snowed In!

Winter has definitely arrived in Nebraska. It started snowing yesterday morning and continued throughout the day — we ended up with around 10 inches — and then, the wind kicked in. This means blizzard conditions — blowing snow, major snow drifts, limited visibility and extremely hazardous driving conditions.

All the schools were closed yesterday and many businesses closed early and sent staff home. DH arrived home around 12:30 PM. Schools still closed today — sun is out, but it is bitterly cold and there is a large drift covering our entire driveway. No sign of a snow plow, so for now — we are snowed in.

I spent most of my time yesterday afternoon finishing the Chevron Hat — I frogged it back to the beginning of the crown because I did not like the way it was turning out. Found another beret pattern that has you decreasing stitches by half every so many rows — tried that, keeping to the alternating of colors every 4 rows. Much better. Hat is now done and awaiting blocking along with the scarf. I will post pictures tomorrow.

Have a fresh loaf of bread going in the bread machine — didn’t make it to the grocery store before the big storm. Fresh homemade bread and a hot pot of soup sounds good — off to make the soup.

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WIP: Cardigan & Romper for New GrandsonWIP: Cardigan & Romper for New Grandson

Okay — I swatched some more on this cardigan project. Earlier I had posted about Things Learned from a Swatch. Well, I continued to be dissatisfied with my color selections — I really just do not like that light aqua color for this sweater. So, I went back to my LYS and bought up all the teal color they had — which is the color I really wanted for the main color on the cardigan. The problem is that there isn’t enough of this color to do both a cardigan and a romper to match.

So, standing in front of the yarn bin at the store, I decided that I’d try using a combination of the teal, the red AND a darker blue. There was enough of the darker blue in one dye lot to do the romper and there was 1 ball of another dye lot left. Since I only need 1 ball of the darker color to do the alternating 3 color pattern in the cardigan, I bought this ball as well because the color variation is not that different between the two dye lots and since it will be mixed in with the other colors, it should work out okay.

Swatch_Cardigan3 Here’s my swatch with the new color scheme added. The darker blue color definitely shows up better than the lighter blue against the teal color that I want for the main color. I have started knitting the romper in the darker blue and I think I’m going to really like the coordinated outfit that will result. This project is a bit challenging because I am knitting on size 0 and size 1 needles to get the right guage. Lots and lots of small stitches…

First Row of Teddy Bear Squares Done!First Row of Teddy Bear Squares Done!

\"First Row of Teddy Bear Squares\"
I have completed the first row of Teddy Bear pattern squares on my baby blanket. This project is knitting up nicely and I am happy with my adaptation of the original pattern. I think the choice of the cotton Peaches & Cream yarn was also a good one. Just read a thread on Ravely about yarns for babies and one knitter commented on how the Peaches and Cream yarn gets softer with each wash – exactly what I wanted: a soft, washable baby blanket.

Things Learned from a SwatchThings Learned from a Swatch

It took me years to appreciate the value of doing a swatch before starting a knitting project. I cannot tell you how many poorly fitted sweaters I knit before I came to realize that it truly was worth the time and effort to swatch first.

I learned this when I bought my first knitting machine. You see, when you are using a knitting machine, you can’t even get started without doing that swatch – as you need it to tell you if you have your machine tension set up correctly. It only takes one frustrating experience with a too tight tension on the knitting machine to convince you of the necessity for doing a swatch or two.

Swatching also provides you as a knitter the freedom to become, as Elizabeth Zimmermann says, “The boss of your knitting”. If you know your gauge, and understand the basics of the design you are wanting to make – you are free to modify any pattern – or MAKE YOUR OWN.

So, I always swatch. This last weekend I did a swatch using the Baby Ull yarns that I purchased to knit a sweater and romper for my new grandson due the end of January. I had a couple of extra reasons for doing this swatch beyond determining what size needle I needed to obtain the stated pattern gauge. First, I wanted to try out the three color pattern for the sweater and get comfortable with it. Second, I wanted to see if I liked the color combinations of the yarns in the color pattern.

Swatch_Cardigan1 Here’s a picture of the swatch. I cast on 44 stitches so that I could have a 40 stitch area surrounded by a 2 stitch garter stitch edging. I started using US 2 (3.00 mm) needles and then switched to a smaller US 1 (2.50 mm) needle for the last part of the swatch. I did a section of garter stitch, then stockinette stitch, then the color pattern using the lighter aqua blue as the main color and then switched to using the darker teal blue as the main color. I finished the swatch by doing a section of sockinette stitch on the smaller needles, followed by a section of garter stitch.

Here’s what I learned from this swatch: 1) I need to use smaller needles than what is stated in the pattern in order to obtain gauge. This is important because I want this sweater to fit. 2) I like using the darker teal blue as the main color – I think the lighter aqua blue shows up better against it than the other way around. This is significant – because I bought 7 balls of the lighter aqua and only 1 ball of the darker teal. (I have now ordered enough teal to make the sweater, as my LYS did not have enough of it on hand…) 3) The 3 color pattern is fairly simple and easy to knit. I think it’s good to practice such things before starting off on a special project like this.

So to those readers who “hate to swatch”: do you see the value of what I did here? Swatching is a valuable technique that helps you be the “boss of your knitting”. Now go swatch!