Another Repeat?

The Holden Shawlette has been flying off the needles, and I'm loving every minute of it. The only problem is, I have finished the last repeat and have a significant amount of wool left......what to do? The sensible part of me says "finish up before I get into trouble", the risktaking part of me says "go for it! one more repeat, no worries!" So what to do?

My gut instinct is telling me to go for one more repeat and I think I'll listen to her, she is almost never wrong. For example when knitting Nathan's Skye Tweed sweater, the whole time I thought it was going to be too small, but kept convincing myself it would block out. And it kinda did, but not enough. Instinct 1 Me 0. The sweater is too small.

Or my Smoky Raven sweater for myself, I thought the stripes were too narrow, did I listen? No. Am I loving it? No. There are more examples, but suffice it to say, Instinct is usually dead on, and I think I trust her. So what will I do? One more repeat of course and pray that I won't run out of wool!

Swatching For Seneca

Today I decided to swatch for Seneca, swatching being something I don't usually do. However as I'm knitting this sweater out of handspun, I thought I'd better do a swatch as I have had no experience with this wool.

I also decided that as this whole project is in the round, that I will use this as an opportunity to practice my continental knitting, hopefully to acheive a faster and more efficient knitting skill. I also knit this in the round as the pattern suggests, to minimise any errors.

I was very pleased with how well I picked up the continental method again, although it was always the purling I had trouble with. I probably didn't knit as much as I should've, but oh well. I was pleased to notice that my stitches were a bit looser, which is a relief as lately my stitches strangle the needles, and I struggles sometimes to pull them back off the cable and onto the needle.

After casting off, I washed the swatch in a warm bath of Softly wool wash. Then let it air dry. I was pleased to see the wool blossom up a bit, something which I had not really noticed before. Where I thought the holes were perhaps too big, they filled out nicely. The imperfections in my spinning also seemed to balance out after washing too. I have made gauge using 4.5mm needles, so I am looking forward to casting on for my Handspun Seneca very soon.