f is for ...

First group of swatches. Fourth attempt. Finished. Finally.

It took 4 tries, but I'm finally satisfied with the first four swatches I did for the Master Hand Knitter course. I switched yarn three times, changed needle size twice, and tried two different blocking methods. But I finally have something I'm comfortable sending in to the experts for their critique, and now I can move on to the next group of swatches.

Will I be touching these four samples again before I send my package out? As they say here in Brooklyn, fuhgeddaboutit.

d is for diet

And also for "don't need it."

Since I started working on the Master Hand Knitter course, I've lost 4 pounds without even trying. I'm so obsessed (yes, I will admit it) that I've got sticks and wool in my hands every spare moment, as well as during some moments I shouldn't be sparing. If my hands are filled with needles, they don't have room to be filled with chocolate.

The photo above was taken from the requisite monthly diet article in the April 2010 issue of Glamour, but honestly, it could have come from any women's magazine, couldn't it?

Here is my alternative to the same old diet story. I call it ...

4 Knitting Ways to Lose 4 Pounds

1. Stick to it. Knit the same swatch three times trying to make consistently sized stitches.
2. Add steps to your day. Leave your unblocked swatches on a shelf that you thought was out of your kids' reaches. Look for swatches when you're ready to start blocking, only to find they're gone. Get 20 minutes of calisthenics searching for the missing swatches.
3. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Block your first four swatches, then photograph them, only to realize that the work was not nearly as good looking as you first thought. Knit swatches a 4th time.
4. And of course, take in fewer calories. Get so absorbed in getting it right this time, you totally forget to eat dinner. (I swear, this actually happened to me this week. And I am someone who never, absolutely ever forgets to eat.)

Not necessarily so quick and easy. But my weight-loss strategy, which I think I'll call the Obsessive-Compulsive Knitter's Diet, is effective anyway.

c is for calculator

I am working on The Knitting Guild of America's Master Hand Knitter course right now, which basically involves knitting swatch after swatch after swatch after swatch after ... well, you get the idea. It's a shipload of swatches.

Swatches 1, 2, 3, and 14 have to be knit on the same needles, using the same yarn so that you can compare the stitch and row gauge of different pattern stitches. (For those of you who don't knit, that means how many stitches and how many rows it takes to fill a specific measurement, i.e.; 4 stitches to the inch.) 

In order to be as specific as possible, you've got to measure to an eighth of an inch, then divide that into how many stitches or rows you've knit. You wind up getting a number with a gazillion decimal places. Then you've got to multiply that number by either 18 or 10, to determine how many stitches you'd need to make an 18" wide sweater piece, or how many rows you would have to knit to make your knitting 10 inches high.

I don't know about you, but multiplying 6.288888x18 is not my idea of a fun mental exercise. Ergo (I just love that word!), my calculator has become my new BFF. And seeing as how I'm only on Level I of three levels, I suspect the two of us will be joined at the hip for a long, long time.