Weekend Catch Up

Over the weekend I finished my gauge swatch for my Icelandic sweater. Honestly, I have always hated knitting swatches, but I understand the need for them. I knit it flat, even though the garment will be knit in the round, and even though I understand that stockinette knit flat has a slightly different gauge from that which is knit in the round, I doggedly knit it flat. No one can ever say that I never engage in exercises in futility.

Because I am absolutely the worst at actually reading the gauge, I walked my swatch over to Miss Bette, and asked her to take a look at it. I had gotten about four stitches to the inch, and she confirmed my findings (OK, maybe I'm not as bad at ascertaining my gauge as I thought). However, the gauge needs to be three and a half stitches to the inch, so I need to change my needle size. I am a tight knitter, I admit, but it used to be I knit to gauge.

Regardless, I shall try to knit a swatch in the round! Something I've never done before. So I need to find the right size double pointed needles and cast on a few stitches and see what I can come up with. Miss Bette showed me a way to get the stitches on the DPNs without twisting, and if I can remember how to do it, I'll try to put them on the needles tonight. If I can find the right size. Which is a wicked big "if".

There are times when I wish I'd brought my knitting with me. I almost always have it, but this weekend I spent time with the Big Easy Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, of which I am a member, and I usually don't need to have my knitting with me when I'm with the Sisters. Novice Sister Shir Madness organised a Safer Sex Symposium as her novice project, which centered around kink. Because I am a Novice Guard in the organisation, I got to sit at the door and collect any donations people wished to make. This is something I did not mind, but I was a little bored and if I'd had my knitting with me, I could have made some progress on some project or another. I shall let this be a lesson: I shall always take my knitting, a small project, even when I might be with the Sisters, and then I won't be bored.

This weekend coming, I plan to go shopping for a light that will brighten up my knitting area. One of the problems I have with knitting in my current house is that there isn't enough light for me to see. My old apartment in Boston had a HUGE window that took up most of one wall in my bedroom, so I had plenty of light in the daytime. And for some reason, enough light with all the electric lights on in the evening to knit. But my house in New Orleans seems to swallow the light and I think if I can find a high intensity floor lamp, I shall acquire it for knitting. I want to knit more than I am currently doing, but feel hampered by the lack of light.