I... am a master of NOTHING.

Well, it was a nice thought, and maybe I didn't post again right away because I wanted to bask in the glory of two perfect swatches.

But it wasn't meant to be. Neither was right! The Mist swatch was right before washing, but it grew by about 2 stitches over 10 cm, which would make it too big. The St. Brigid swatch was sort of a disaster. That afternoon I must have been paying too much attention to the meeting and miscounted, because it was only 18 sts in 4", which isn't even close to 21.

So back to the swatching board, as it were. Mist was swatched, for the fifth time(!) on size 0s, and I got 24sts before washing, and 23 afterwards. I'm aiming for 22, so close enough! I can ease up a little bit and be fine, and if I'm still a little tight I should be able to take care of it in the blocking. One down.

St. Brigid swatching, however, has been less successful. I picked up some bamboo needles (Clover) in 3s and 4s and tried on the 3s, hoping it would be overkill. No such luck. I still got 18sts. I returned the needles and went looking for advice. I think I have three options, an dI'll take them in this order.

1. Use waxed paper (or an $6 can of wax) to make the turbos sticky.
   
2. Try size 2 Addi Naturas.
3. Try some other wood or bamboo needle, but not Crystal Palace, because I was unhappy wtih the join the only time I used them.
4. Give up on this yarn and try a lighter weight.

I'm hoping that I'll have better success with one of these methods. Does anyone have other suggestions?

And finally, the lingerie. I had to start over three times because I'd get to the end of a row and the pattern wouldn't line up, which meant that the mistake could have been in that row or the previous one. I finally put in markers, which helped a lot. I'm now on the last row of the edging and I'm ready to start the body. And now I'm wondering if I made a critical error. I have more hips than are allowed for in the pattern, by a whole size. So I figured I'd work the edge in the larger size and then decrease a repeat on each side toward the waist. And now I'm wondering what the decrease rate should be, whether the arrow I'll have to make by decreasing the repeats together will look funny, whether the regular size might just have been stretchy enough and I shouldn't have done this at all. I think for now I'll with it as planned, but I'll keep in mind a famous blue blog technique. I figure that if this doesn't work out, I can pick up a row of stitches, cut, and then work down to the end. I could even knit a separate edgind and graft it in, if I really have to. We'll see how it goes...

So that's the news for this week. I find that I'm really unmotivated to post when I can't take pictures, and I hope that hte good digital camera will be back next week. I'll be in Montreal for a meeting for most of the week, so hopefully I'll get a lot of knitting done and have something fun to show when I get back. I think I'll take the lingerie, my sock, and Mist. That should hold me for five days, right? Or should I take my Koigu hat, too? Decisions, decisions...