Not Superwash? The Horror!

I've had a knitting tragedy. I was about to start a pair of Velomeister socks out of the yarn in the picture below when I read the label and discovered that the purple isn't superwash. The horror! (I fully realize that if this is the worst thing that is happening in my life, I've got it pretty good.) I think I'll be knitting the socks anyways. I'll just have a hand wash pile of laundry somewhere. But it is a little annoying not to be able to throw socks in the regular laundry pile.

 The purple is Koigu in the Prince colorway and the yellow is Tosh Sock in the Edison Bulb colorway.

I'm still swatching for design #9. At first I had chosen a yarn that was a little too dark and didn't have a tight enough ply to show off the design. So I've swapped yarn, but I'm still having trouble getting the pattern to pop. The voice in the back of my mind says that it is a scale issue, so I'm back with the graph paper trying some new things. But, of course, I can only show you the underside of the swatch for now.

So I'm back to knitting my mitten. I only seem to pull this out when all my other knitting has made me more angry than working on the mitten. There is nothing really wrong with it. Although I've had my share of ripping, re-knitting, and various adjusting, the actual knitting is pretty easy now. But for some reason I just haven't had it in me to finish it yet. Hopefully I'll have them done by the time it's cold again. After all, I only have this one left to finish. Good thing the yarn is a delight to use. It's Kauri fingering in the Green Peka 04 colorway.

Artistic Swatch Organization

I don't know about the rest of you knitters and crocheters out there, but I have the worst time with keeping my swatches in order. They just kind of end up... everywhere. But I have devised an excellent way to keep current swatches in order. You'll need a little wood crate. Mine held fudge and is 8 x 6.25 x 1.5 inches. You can find small wood crates on etsy as well. Here's a good one. You'll also need some paper clips and your swatches. I personally tie on a bit of paper with swatch information onto my swatches, but that is optional.

Start by bending the inside part of the paper clip down. You now have a little hook.

Use the paper clip hooks to hang your swatches onto the crate and voila, you now have a way to organize swatches. And, if you like, you can always hang the crate up on the wall. It's a great way to see what kinds of projects you have on the needles, or are planning for.

Once I'm done with a project, I use an old cigar box to hold all my old swatches.

Now I need to come up with a project that can use up old swatches.