February
2005
110893028860470085
Attempts at Mastery
Over the past week, I spent some time finishing my swatches for Level 1 of the Master Knitter program. Since the last time I worked on them, I decided to re-knit a few and I also decided to change yarns. The early swatches were all knit with a merino wool, the recent ones with a wool/acrylic blend. In the end, I’m a little disappointed with the yarn change. The blend just doesn’t block as well. I think the differences are most pronounced with the cable swatches.
Here’s Swatch #13, knit with all wool:
Here’s Swatch #14, knit with the wool/acrylic blend:
As you can see, the reverse stockinette area around the cable is much more defined with the wool than with the blend. That’s just one example. Whereas small variations between stitches are evened out by blocking the wool, the blend seems to be a lot less forgiving.
However, I have no idea how much I should dwell on these problems. I’m hyper-critical of my work and could re-knit them for the next decade and still find things to fix. Perfect is the enemy of good enough, so I’m just going to mail them in as is and see what flies. It’s how I finished my Ph.D., after all.
You can see all of the swatches in the project notes (although two are still blocking, so no photos yet). I’m off to work on the questions.
Mermaid Jacket
Odessa Hat 
ZigZag Sweater
Twisty Baby Set
Miss Dashwood
Clapotis (Mixed Berries)
Tychus
When blocking acrylic yarns or yarn blends I found that it is helpful to immerse them in hot water. They seem to react better to that. I made some swatches with pure acrylic yarn on my level 1 and they all blocked fine with that method.