A Good Start.

Hello Blog!

First, since I know you'll ask; I did not finish Treads yesterday. I'm really close though!

Yesterday, was a bad day for me. I mean, a screaming, shouting, cursing, crying bad day. I know, but it's OK because after it was all over, I went to my friend's house and we went to AC Moore. AC Moore is where all of the pretty, cheap, acrylic yarn lives, and not to dis Michael's at all, but this particular AC Moore has the most amazing selection of brands and colors. It's nothing short of epic.

Suddenly, without really meaning to I had agreed to starting a knit-a-long. A Knit-a-long for a sweater. A SWEATER. There is nothing better for boosting morale, self-esteem, and delusions of grandeur than going to buy yarn with a fellow enabler. ( I might be her dealer but she's just as bad for me as I am for her, and that's the story I'm sticking to.)

What sweater you might ask? Why none-other than the simple and elegant $5 in Paris that has been high up in my queue for a good long time now. I love this sweater, it's really a classic, fitted look and it does stripes in a way that actually looks nice....

I don't want anything to go wrong with this project. I want this sweater to be a roaring success, I want it to fit properly, I want to be able to wear it out in public - or to work - without feeling embarrassed, or regretting some fault or another with the sweater that only I can see. To that end, today I am swatching. Serious swatching. It may be true that swatches lie, but I will swatch the living daylights out of this yarn until it tells me what I want to know.

Gauge is supposed to be 5 stitches to an inch.

on size 9 needles; unblocked 4 1/2 stitches, blocked 3 3/4 stitches

on size 8 needles; unblocked 5 stiches, blocked 4 stitches

on size 7 needles; unblocked 5 stitches, blocked 4 1/2 stitches

Regardless of what needle size I go with for the body, I plan on going down a size smaller for the ribbing. I do not want the neck of this thing draping off of my shoulders!

'Cheers,

Theo