My stash ate my knitting!

That is the only reasonable explanation for not being able to locate 'bun's' sweater in my craft room. Really, it has nothing to do with it being nicknamed my crap room by my husband. It only looks disorganized. Luckily, even though Stella is in labour as we speak, bun won't be big enough to wear it for a couple of months.

Luckily I was at my favorite LYS Friday afternoon and happened to pick up some Patons Classic Wool to complete the hat and mittens from their new 'Cables' booklet. March's lion-ness is lasting far too long IMHO. The pattern calls for Canadiana, but really, if I'm going to knit, I don't want to be killing those acrylic sheep. So yes I substituted. What's that? Did I swatch? Why yes, in a manner of speaking:



That was the second attempt. The first followed the pattern and was 112 stitches. It only lasted 3 rows. This one was 97 stitches and lasted one pattern repeat. The final is 97 stitches and is just right. I still believe this is less taxing than the math involved with that 4-by-4 square.

I am usually a big fan of minimizing seams. This however is being knit flat because when I first looked at the pattern I noticed a bunch of Sl1Pwyif's and they scared me. I now realize that my fears were unfounded, but I won't be ripping this out again. The trick now is to adjust for the increase in length of the swatch, being a beanie there really is no room for error.

I can't wait to see how this one turns out.