Saturday, August 21, 2010

There I go, with the S word again.

DD is hard at work on the asphalt--band camp doesn't stop for hot summer temperatures. I dropped by the school parking lot today to watch the band for a while, and I heard some interesting things from the band director. Besides, "if you're talking, you're not listening to me," I heard something else that stuck. "Practice it like you're going to perform it."

A few days ago, on the tennis court, I heard pretty much the same thing from our instructor. "Why are you warming up flatfooted? You aren't going to play that way." (She's obviously not seen me play a match.)

Since all roads lead to knitting, at least on my map, it got me to thinking. Why would I swatch in rows when the intended project is knit in the round? Why would I swatch with bamboo dpns when I plan to knit the garment on metal circulars? Swatch it the way you'll knit it; otherwise, as someone said, swatches lie.

6 comments:

  1. and that is precisely WHY I never swatch ... dirty lying buggers! LOL

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  2. hehehe... I learned that the hard way. If I swatch (don't always swatch for a scarf or socks), I usually do use the needles and pattern of the intended project. I learned.

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  3. Oh, yes. I learned it the hard way, too. Happens, if you don't want to listen to you elders!!

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  4. Another favorite of my band director was "we're only as strong as our weakest link." So true of knitting as well.

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  5. I remember our band director screaming at us during practice one night, "It's gotta give me goose bumps! GOOSE BUMPS!" I'm not sure how this applies to knitting, but I'm sure it does if I think about it some more :-)

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  6. I'm finding that my easy to swatch cables have turned into unruly mosters. Why? Swatched on a thrift-store 16" circ, knitting on Denise. They're both plastic, but Oh, such very, very different plastic.

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