I’m the type of girl who likes a project with minimal finishing. When I’m done, I want it to be done. I don’t want to have to do any extra work (I tend to avoid blocking… but that’s starting change) once I’ve finished binding off. The same goes with starting a project: I want to start it, dammit. I don’t want to sit around swatching and counting and doing math. I want to knit something productive!

Which, hey, give me some credit here, has worked out for me in the past. I have yet to turn out a garment that didn’t fit due to gauge problems: it was a pattern sizing issue the one time I made a sweater that didn’t fit.

But with knitting socks, it’s not such a big deal. You don’t really have to swatch, you can just pick up and knit. Same with scarves, hates, and most other winter-esque clothing. Maybe not so much with the fair isle fingerless mitts, but you get my drift.

My method of no finishing and no swatching has been my staple, my stand by. Until now.

But recently, I purchased some nice sweater quantities of yarn (Dream in Color Classy and Malabrigo). If I’m going to be a knitter, I’m going to be a knitter, dammit. I want to get a sweater finished before October so I have something to wear when it’s chilly. I do go to school in San Francisco, after all. A nice wool sweater is a must. I also purchased an amazing book that has so many patterns I want to knit that I couldn’t decide where to start. But, I finally decided where to start: Favorite Cardigan using Malabrigo Merino in Buscando Azul.

So I swatched Thursday night to make sure I got gauge.

I did.

Then I cast on Friday morning and started working through to pattern to make sure I liked the way it knit up. I was going to swatch my cables, but I’m not changing my ways that much.

And I liked it, so I kept on trucking. And in between homework cram sessions and during my breaks from eating, I managed to…

Finish almost all of the raglan increases for a size small. Not an extremely impressive amount, but if you saw the amount of time I spent writing a paper accusing Virginia Woolf of being privileged and classist while simultaneously studying for Spanish and reading an article on queer women of color, then you’d understand my massive amounts of YAY at completing this much of my sweater today.

While it’s not yet a wearable project, I’m still really excited to see how much I’ve accomplished. I’m planning on having a knitting spree tomorrow - inbetween homework sessions, errands, and the final bits of unpacking I have to do, of course.

But it looks like this swatching business is paying off. I’ve been stopping periodically to take measurements, and the garment is standing the test of time. Go team Liz!

On a side note, I apologize for my short and unineresting posts lately. I’m still getting used to the swing of things with grad school (more to come on that soon!) and living with Boyfriend (more on this one, too), and I’ve got a lot going on at the moment in all the other parts of my life as well. I post more frequently, and with much more depth, at BitchBuzz.com, the site I edit with the most amazing blogger of all time. I’ve been a bit MIA from all of my online projects and groups for the month of August, but I’m officially back in action.

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