The Master's Level 1 Swatch #4

I'm coming to the conclusion that I will never pass Level 1 in the Master's.  Oh, I'll keep going since I will learn a lot, but I have certainly given up any hope of passing.  I find that when I am trying to knit the swatches I get all focused and tense and all I can think of is all the places that I could make this horrible, very bad, never be able to fix it right mistake and then I will have to do the swatch all over again and it will be some weird Ground Hog Day nightmare over and over and over again.  About this time I'm binding off  Swatch #4 and have some kind of "out of body" experience because I suddenly have this weird extra bar thing on the back and I have no idea where that came from so there I am frogging the bind off and back knitting to where I some how dropped a damn stitch. You would think I might notice dropping a stitch, but noooooo.   Temporarily abducted by aliens can be the only explanation.

Over thinking gets me in trouble in the saddle as well.  My trainer has been giving me and ole nimble toes an exercise where we have to back up in a "U" shape.  Don't think about it, just do it.  Yea...right!   This sounds a whole lot easier than it is and being the slightly dyslexic and spatially challenged person I am this is tough.  It is also tough for ole nimble toes because backing requires the horse to back up using his feet diagonally.  You would think it is like walking, only backwards, but it isn't.  It is the same foot placement as the trot going forward.  So, you are sort of trotting backwards at a walk pace and doing a U in reverse. The horse has to figure out what to do with his feet, not ole nimble toes strongest suit.  Standing around hoping someone will give him a peppermint is more his style. 

So asking ole nimble toes to go backward when he can manage to fall over his own feet just trying to walk forward is a tough one.  We managed to get only two correct steps in all the attempts.  Lesley, the trainer, thinks this is good for me because I can't over think it, I just have to do it.  Gets me out of my head.

What does this have to do with knitting?  I just finished my second go at Swatch #4 and blocked it - Blech.  I start over thinking all this stuff and the next thing I know I am so focused on my knitting and my shoulders are up under my ears.  Sigh...oh for the happy ignorance of "just knitting". 

I even bought the signature needles and I am probably the only one on the planet that thinks they are ugly.  I don't like their loud, carnival colors, they compete with the yarn and I don't like it.  I like black, with occasional wild and crazy forays into beige.  My horse is black, my cat is black and my dog is actually sort of grey except for her four buff (think beige) legs.  I realize I am not the norm. So I don't like the colors of the signature needles, but agree they do knit nicely and others probably love the colors.  Lol...I just noticed the yarn I picked out is beige, yep I was just thinking it was light colored and I couldn't use black. 

I did this sweater several years ago, happily knitting on some size 8 ebony needles from Lantern Moon.  The whole thing was a 2x2 rib.

 I don't think it's all that terrible tension wise, but I what do I know, I wasn't over thinking the whole thing - as I have said before: ignorance is bliss.

Tools of the Trade

As anyone that has read the prior posts on the Master's Hand Knit I am striving to increase my technical ability.  This has caused me to really start looking at all the aspects of the knitting process.  I've been rather dismayed to look at my first three swatches and see rows with the kind of tension problems that look like a failed sobriety test.  Denial being a useful coping mechanism, I was sure I knitted better than that which sent me to my closet to start pulling out some of my hand knitted items and staring intently at the rows and tension.  They weren't perfect, but they weren't that bad and none of the items had been blocked.  I've never been big on blocking until I did it for the first time for the Hand Knit program.  Given how my swatches came out, I'm not sure I'm a convert to blocking - but that's a different issue. 

I then looked at a project sitting in my chair and thought the tension looked pretty good or least better than the first three swatches.  The above knitted piece hasn't been blocked but seems to have better tension then the SS swatch below. 

It occurred to me I had knitted the Cat in the Hat piece with a set of Addi Turbo lace points, while the MHK swatch had been knitted with an old pair of size 7 Boyle Balene knitting needles.  Metal vs. Casein.  The original Boyle Balene needles were Casein.  These needles are apparently made from a milk product, which explains why I can vaguely recall being told they didn't travel well, or handle sudden or extreme changes in climate becoming brittle and snapping.  They were suppose to mimic whalebone. This is a link to a website that sells these and has some information which I found interesting.  Casein Knitting Needles. 

I remembered  Montse Stanley's book The Knitter's Handbook  mentioned problems with tension sometimes being caused by tips that are to long. This sent me to the pile of knitting needles I have collected over 3 decades - wood, metal, bamboo, casein, all different. 

I compared three different sets I had and noticed some interesting differences.

 First the Casein needles are long in the tips and have a definite ridge before they drop off into the point.  These are the needles I have been using for the swatches. They have a clear ridge and if you look really carefully the tips are not uniform, there are subtle differences in their thickness.  Hmmm.....

Casein needles

The Susan Bates are metal and you would expect them to be consistent, but these are even more disparate in the tips.

Now I am assuming I bought the Bates needles as a pair rather than having picked them up at a garage sale or thrift store - but I really don't know.  The tips are clearly different - and I have to assume that this would have an impact on gauge and tension.  The last pair are an old pair of wooden needles and I don't have a clue where they came from.  They have very short tips, but at least look identical, however one shaft is longer than the other.  This makes me wonder if there is a subtle difference in the thickness of the shaft and to what degree this affects gauge and tension.

While I believe you can knit with just about anything, I think tools or the quality of the tool will have an impact on the finished product.  Will it magically make your knitting perfect, well no - but it will certainly contribute to the end result.