I own just one Phildar book, and it's in French, but every time I look at it I am struck by the presence of one little question at the bottom of every page: Have you made your swatch? (It's so much more elegant in French, of course, starting with the beautiful word échantillon instead of our nasally swatch!) I bring this up because non, I did not make my échantillon for Gigi and have come to grief over it. Having gotten almost to the armholes, I had to rip it back to the ribbing. I then went up two (!) needle sizes. C'est la vie, of course, but dang. From now on, I'm going to think of it not as a swatch but as an échantillon in hopes that it will charm me into being more careful. The darnedest thing is that I knit something with Cotton Fleece yarn last summer and was sure I remembered which needles I used. I guess my tension is probably more anxious than healthy these days, which, come to think of it, is not surprising. At any rate, I did finish the Donegal Tweed socks; there's a frost advisory in Chicago tonight, so they went right on my feet. One skein was enough for the pair, with just a few yards to spare!*
Say, I'm in the Linen Drape-Along! I spent the weekend deciding that I can start the thing without knowing exactly how it will turn out -- it'll be a hybrid of a few Kim Hargreaves designs, some of which even call for Linen Drape. I just hope it's not a mutant! I'll cast on in the next couple of days for it. A knitalong! Whoo-ooo!
*The cuffs are 5 1/2 inches long, and my shoe size is 8 1/2 or 9.
Those socks look great! Thanks for the info on how much yarn you ended up using. I'm planning on knitting Gigi too some day. I can't wait to see how yours turns out.
Posted by: monica | May 02, 2004 at 09:40 PM