I am a swatching master!

If I'd written an entry this morning, I would have told you that I have start-itis. All this good stuff in the mail, and making up excuses for starting things I've already got! After Friday night's episode of not wanting to work on the sock, I really wanted to go back to Mist and swatch for St. Brigid. Yesterday afternoon an intern from work came over to learn to knit. While waiting for her to arrive, I started a new swatch for Mist (on the size 1 needles I got on Friday). My student would need to learn to cast on, so I figured I might as well cast on a new project as an example. I quickly swatched and cast on for my Koigu hat. I then decided that seeing techniques would work better in fat yarn on big needles, so I used some spare yarn to teach and worked on my hat while she was knitting. I did about 8 rounds of the hat while she worked. That's as far as I got on the hat.

While showing off an assortment of patterns, I remembered the lingerie! I got out the cone of Zephyr I had to start mine and wound it off, casting on that evening.

I went back to my Mist swatch while I watched a couple movies last night and was pleased ot find that I didn't make very many mistakes in the dark. Finished that off during a meeting this afternoon and was pleased to find that I finally got the right gauge! I'll wash and remeasure just to make sure, but I'm really excited!

There was more meeting to go, so I started the swatch for the St. Brigid. My mom's copy of the book had notes from when she'd made it. The book says to use 7's and mom's note said that she'd gotten slightly too big a guage with wooden 3's . I tried 4's and worked away, and first measurement says that this swatch (unwashed) is also perfect, at least for stitch gauge.

Yes! I am a swatching master! How often do you get two perfect swatches in one day? And the opportunity to start four new projects in one weekend? This may be a disaster waiting to happen.

I suspect that the hat, Marcel's sweater, and the baby blanket will go on hold while I get excited about my new stuff. (Go back a few days and look at the blanket patterns, and give me your opinion. I want someone to make a decision for me!) And here are my justifications.

• Hat: Koigu hat looks like it won't be as warm as my Silk Garden hat, so it can wait until it's warmer out.
• Marcel's sweater: I'm not really getting anything done on it anyway, and if I'm going to focus on cables, and if I'm going to work on a project that needs a lot of attention, I should work on mom's sweater.
• Baby Blanket: Baby is due in the summer, I have plenty of time, and I don't know which pattern to choose!

Time to go make wet swatches and see whether they stay perfect!