#sample knitting

Enjoying some sunshine at last!

Sunny & I enjoyed a perfect morning today!

For me, that meant coffee & knitting out on the back deck (with Sunny nearby, of course 😉)!

For Sunny, that meant a new beef chew & lying in soft, shady grass!

It’s such a relief to have some sunshine at last! And today was perfect – brilliant blue sky, warm sunshine but not too hot, a lovely breeze… listening to the music of the stream and the birds,…

So, almost two weeks ago, I volunteered to do a sample knit for a designer. I'll get to keep the sample I make, after I send it to her for pictures. I've been keeping mostly quiet about it (with the exception of my post the other day about having to start it over) because it's my first time doing any kind of professional sample knitting, and I was nervous about the whole thing.

Anyway, after I restarted, I've been roaring along on it, and I have noticed some things. Notably, my knitting is a lot more even and regular than it used to be. I kind of knew that, but I hadn't really had much reason to actually take note until I started working on this. See, it used to be that my gauge swatch was always more tightly-knit than the actual item, because swatches stress me out, and that affected my tension. So I went with a set of needles that was a size smaller than I actually needed to make gauge, because I expected my knitting to loosen up considerably once I began. It didn't. After about 12" of the pattern (which begins 6" into the piece), I realized that my gauge in the piece matched the gauge in my swatch *exactly.* That was unfortunate for my ability to continue, but it told me that I'm a better knitter than I thought I was, and that takeaway has been a comfort. Now I just need to keep in mind that I'm consistent, because I'm my head I still don't really think I am...