Creating a swatch is very important with knitting. Not only does it allow you to make sure you have the correct gauge for a project, but if you are designing someone it allows you to figure out those little kinks in a knit pattern.
But it is also tedious and boring at times. I will admit I’m terrible at swatching. I just want to start a project. And normally I only have enough yarn for the project, so making a swatch usually involves knitting and then frogging (I only recently learned you really should wash and block your swatches).
But this time I did create a swatch for this shawl design. We’ll sort off. I knew even though I had figured out sections on paper that it doesn’t always work that way on the needles. Especially cables. So I knit up sections a few times, making notes until I got it right.
My first go I realised I was working in the wrong side with the lace. The cable however worked perfectly.
Next I trailed the gradient on the cabled section, as well as the lace and short rows. I decided I preferred the blue grey for the cable. I also realised I didn’t like the plain gather section, though the lace worked exactly how I wanted it to.
This is the current version. I’m working further along now. And have come across a new problem. How to write the pattern in it’s simplest form so it is easy to understand, functional while providing the end result. And also without having the chart every lace section for the entire shawl. Which would be a lot of work for me, but also makes it annoying from the point of view of the pattern user. That is going to involve some serious math and some alterations in the increases. With me luck.
If you want to see more in the way of the progression of my designs, follow me on Instagram. I post many photos of my knitting. My username is mayalevitt. (There will most likely will also be random kid spam)
Maya Levitt Designs 