They say bad habits are bound to catch up with you, eventually.
Well, whoever “they” are, they’re right. I wish I didn’t have to admit that, but, there it is.
So, here’s where I admit that I am a Bad Knitter. I never swatch. I hate swatching. It takes time and it takes yarn and it basically just adds that much more distance between excited cast-ons and a finished project. Since I mostly knit socks, mostly on size 1 needles, that mostly fit, I thought, for some reason, that I was above swatches. And pattern recommendations about needle sizes, come to think of it.
This folly has resulted in not one, but two recent trips to the frog pond (Okay, one trip and one long lazy afternoon on the edge, spent mostly in denial that yes, the offending project really does have to be pulled apart and begun again). The first was a pair of socks based on Chinook Winds from Pink Lemon Twist designs. 72 stitches for a size 6 woman’s foot? Bad idea. Maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad if I’d been knitting on size 0 needles as the pattern suggested, but, of course, since size 1s had been working so well, I had to know better than the pattern, right?
Wrong.
The sock was huge. So huge that, had it not been light blue and lacy, I think it would have been a perfect fit for my dear fiance’ and I could have just kept going. (On the plus side, since he tried on the early stage and it did in fact fit, I knew just how big to make his Binary Birthday Socks… more on those later). This could have easily been solved by swatching, even if my “trusty” swatch had lied a little bit. But, I forged ahead until even Adrienne said the sock looked huge and I was forced to acknowledge that yup, it was time to start over.
I started over, still on size 1s, with 63 stitches instead of 72. 5 repeats later, the socks look beautiful. And they now have a picot hem which I like even better than the twisted rib cuff I’d done before. It’s spring and spring is time for the cute and whimsical and that’s what a picot hem is all about. being cute. I love them, now… and have almost forgotten the lost hours from the beginning of the first sock
My Marlene’s, on the other hand, are waiting on the needles for their turn to be broken down and rebuilt. They’re just a hair too small, meaning that they get over my heels with some considerable tugging… but I know that if I keep going, I won’t be happy with the fit. It’s a pity, because they’re really beautiful. I hate to lose the work. A swatch might have reminded me that 64 stitches on size 1 needles in twisted rib (with traveling stitches to boot) might have just a bit too much “suckage factor” to really be a good fit. On to the size 2s… and possibly a fluffier yarn.
I’ve been consoling myself, in the mean time with a couple of projects that are a bit more cooperative and a bit less dependent on swatching. One of them is a pair of very geeky birthday socks for Sam. 72 stitches in stockinette on size 1 needles made of Wollmeise 100% superwash sock in Schwarz and Forster’s Glueck. They’ll be sort of long in the leg, because the striping pattern is determined by the binary code for “Phone Phreak” (his former job title and a favorite self-identifier). Binary code, I think, is a lovely way of determining striping patterns since it’s easy to assign one color to be “0″ and another to be “1″ and just knit a row in whatever color the code demands.
The only downside is that the cuff will be a bit long at 8 rows per character. I guess this method isn’t a good way to go if you have messages longer than 10 or 12 characters, including spaces. Longer notes would have to be weaters or scarves.
The second is a lace stole. I think my favorite thing about knitting lace is that all that changes with changes in needle size is how dense the lace pattern is. Bigger needles = less dense knitting. No swatching. (Unless, of course, one really really needs one’s lace to block to a particular size. Then it might require multiple swatches. But for scarves and stoles and shawls and things, they’re not so necessary. So, 13 out of 15 charts into the Hanami pattern and I’m delighted with the results (if a bit “over” the pattern). And Sea Silk? Amazing to work with. I love living in a world full of beautiful yarns.
