N-E-M-E-S-I-S

Once upon a time, long long ago, when computers were imaginary or took up entire rooms, and word processing editing software wasn’t even spoken of, school-aged boys and girls participated in spelling bees. Spelling was a whole school subject unto itself. At some point in elementary school, we would periodically line up at the chalk board and our teacher would put us through our paces. When it was our turn, we’d be given a word to spell out loud. We could ask for a definition and for the word to be used in a sentence, and everyone knew that was a sure sign of stalling. Unless the word was a tricksy homonym or something similar, fellow spellers knew the kid asking for the definition was likely to take his or her seat in the next few minutes.

My fifth grade year was a stellar one in my Spelling Bee career. I won my class bee, my elementary school bee, and got to go to the County Spelling Bee. It was awesome, and stressful, and it got down to an eighth grade girl and me.

And in the “You Can’t Make This Kind of Stuff Up” category, my next assigned word was NEMESIS.

I could not remember ever having heard that word before. I was stunned. Deer in the headlights, air sucked out of my lungs, mouth dry as sawdust stunned.

I asked for the definition.

I asked for it to be used in a sentence. Oh, the irony!

I spelled it like it was some sort of putrid flower, I think. And then I sat down.

Let me tell you, I can spell it now, and I think when I can’t remember the faces of those I love most, I will still be able to spell that blessed word. More to the point, I KNOW that word, and so when I once again experienced a familiar frustration in my knitting process and the ensuing result, I muttered to myself, n-e-m-e-s-i-s.

Here’s the deal. I don’t like swatching. For those unfamiliar, knitting a swatch is like knitting a small portion of the fabric you’re going to make in a project. You can think of it as taste testing for a larger project. It’s a very good idea to swatch for several reasons, including:

• Determining gauge (how many stitches you’re making per inch with the needles and yarn you’ve chosen).
• Seeing if you like the drape and feel of the fabric you’re making (you might hate it and want to choose different yarn).
• Seeing how any special patterns show up (or don’t) with the yarn you’ve chosen.
• Generally making sure you want to go through with your yarn and needle choices for a particular project. (Some people even wash their swatch to make sure they’re happy with how the knitting behaves through that process.)

I know all this is true. Earlier in my knitting journey, I did a lot of swatching. So I not only have the theoretical knowledge that swatching is important, I have experiential knowledge to back it up. Does all that result in me faithfully swatching when I should? No. No, it does not.

I tend to lean too hard on experience in other ways, thinking “I know this yarn, I know what this typically does, I don’t really need to devote time to this.” The truth is, I’d much rather just get on with the project, and sometimes this bites me right in the hind end.

For some reason, this seems to happen particularly when I make baby blankets. Absolutely none of them have turned out the size or shape I intend them to be. My patient and easy going daughter in law is very gracious about the ones I’ve made for her children, but we joke about the one that “rectangled” because I didn’t bother to swatch the lace pattern to see how much it stretched sideways after coming off the needles.

I intended the one I made above to be small, more of a stroller/receiving size blanket due to time constraints. I’m planning to write up the pattern and will use the finished blanket for gauge information so folks can make the size they want, but I thought I’d aim for “smallish,” and gauge doesn’t super matter for a baby blanket, right?

Uh, well, gauge might not matter a lot, but that part of swatching that helps you see how the fabric behaves when it’s knit up? That might have been helpful. It turns out that all those little cable stitches pull the fabric in, making the piece smaller in the patterned section than it is in the garter stitch border section. The net effect is, without blocking, there’s a slight ripple in the top and bottom garter stitch sections, caused by that gathering of the fabric in the cabled section.

It’s slight enough to come out with blocking, but I’m thinking about altering the pattern slightly to make the border lay nice and flat without needing to block it so. But the whole piece is a good bit smaller than I intended. Drat.

Another point in the SWATCH IT column. We’ll see if it changes my behavior or if swatching continues to be my n-e-m-e-s-i-s.

For now, it’s taking a bath and considering its future.

Beast to Blanket News

We are just about to the end of the current Beast to Blanket class!

My students have been turning in and dropping off their squares these last few days, and I’ll spend the next couple of days assembling them into a blanket for display on Family Night.

I’m really proud of them. Some of the skills in that class are easy for anyone to pick up, but some of them are a bit tricky, especially for kids who struggle with fine motor skills, short attention spans, limited patience, and difficulties with emotional regulation. It’s no surprise that knitting, crocheting, and similar crafts are recommended to help people who struggle in those areas. When they experience progress, it feels huge, and gives them context and confidence to keep making strides.

It will be a fun puzzle to put their squares together. I wanted to be sure I have enough yarn to do the job, so I asked Greg if he wanted to help dye some more yarn.

We both love learning new things, so he was eager to give it a try. I basically gave him the same lesson I gave to my students the first week of Beast to Blanket. You can find the same information in this article and the guide on this free resource page.

We used packets left over from the extras I’d purchased for the class, and included one slightly weird combination just to see what would happen. As I told Greg, that’s part of the fun of dyeing! Sometimes we dye with a specific result in mind, and sometimes we’re really just reverting to the child with a box of crayons, experimenting to see what we can make.

Here’s what he made!

And here’s a video you can watch, in real time, as the dye particles from a packet of grape Kool Aid drop through a jar containing 100% merino wool yarn, warm water, and white vinegar. You can actually see the dye strike the yarn. I think it’s mesmerizing, and beautiful! The end result is the second skein from the right, pictured above.

Isn’t that amazing?

What are you working on today?

Happy knitting!

Kiersten J