You'll come a-swatching Matilda with me...

My head is reeling. I made the short-list on Francis’s post about Fort Worth blogs. Take that, Andy Warhol!

I know you really come here for the knitting. And finally, finally, I have pictures. Only they are not very good, and my camera is holding them hostage until I recharge the batteries. What I need, in addition to fresh batteries, is daylight and a flat surface, although I think the jacket would look lovely draped over the honeysuckle. It is already too warm to photograph it draped over *me*.

I swatched yesterday. Loosey-goosey rows on my trusty size 5s. A more stable fabric on my 4s, but then there is the matter of the needle tip whose laminated layers are separating in one spot. I would show you pictures, except see preceding paragraph.

I should have grabbed that issue of Interweave Knits from the slipcase and looked at the gauge before buying all this Telemark, because no matter how optimistic I am, there is no way to knit a sweater whose gauge is 4.5 stitches per inch in stranded knitting and 3.5 stitches per inch on the straightaway [i.e., stockinette] with a single strand of yarn that wants to be knitted at 6 stitches per inch.

Oh boo hoo, boo hoo. <----- [crocodile tears] This means I must take the vintage Starmore out of its shrine ~ my glass-enclosed bookcase ~ and adapt some of her patterns to the yarn at hand and the sweater shape that I want. [Boo hoo!]²

That was a sop to my fellow mathophiles.

It also means that I must seek out a local source of Manos del Uruguay yarns, because while I love Malabrigo and would love to knit up something splendid from all that softness, summer is nearly here, which means sweat perspiration glowing, and I am not a big believer in felt-as-you-go. And I will have to go back to Plan A, which was to acquire the spendy skeins one or two per month [at $13-14 apiece] until I have enough to make the sweater.

Autumn Asters is heading for time-out. I am heading for the tub. And I hope you are all heading into a good day.