Swatch you

Although I admit to the logic and usefulness of swatching, I hardly ever do it. So far, I have mostly knit socks (and I already know what needle size I like to use with basic sock yarn), and sweaters in which I didn't have a pattern and instead just winged it with a needle proper for the yarn I was doing.

For my next project, however, I wanted to do a shawl. Another step in my quest to learn lace knitting. I knew the basic shawl pattern I wanted to do (stockinette with your yarn over inceases of 4 per row) and I knew what yarn I wanted to use (this pretty shimmery dove gray yarn I bought in Poland as few years ago), and of course, guage is not really important to a shawl because you just keep knitting until you run out of yarn or the shawl is the size you want (hopefully the latter and not the former), but. . . . . I didn't know what size needle I wanted. I want the shawl to be soft and drapery, not too tight, but not too gapey, either. Three swatches later, I am still not sure which size needles to use. This is not that difficult a decision, is it? Pick one, and start knitting. I am tempted to go up one more needle size, but, well, I only had three balls of the yarn, so I would have to frog one of the others first. Hmmmm.

In other news, one skirt nearly finished. Only the hem to go! Already sorting through the delicious materials and dazzling patterns to choose my next victim. I have some great linen blends that I bought years ago, and those can be made into something fit for work.

I am playing judge again. Every other time, I have done child support court, but this time it is Juvenile Court. I am dealing with deliquents and children who have been removed from their parents' care. It feels like I have graduated one more tier up the judge ladder. Not that I want to be a judge by any stretch of the imagination, but it is interesting to get another perspective on these cases, since I am usually a lawyer in them.

And of course, in the downtime, I knit. Socks in progress, swatches testing, don't look at me like I am crazy. Haven't you ever seen your judge put down her knitting to begin a hearing before?

Today, it is all about the swatching.