swatching

we've been a good girl:

it's the swatch for angelina, just to make sure that our tension is ok before we embark on the project - we've learnt from experience - when it comes to patterns, it pays to do the thing. what we've done here is started out on the recommended needles (3.75mm) and knitted a sample in k1 p1 rib, as recommended. we tried knitting combined style first, which was way too loose (and a little messy). so we tried our normal throwing style. still too loose, but better. switch to 3.25mm needles. combined - too loose. normal - bingo. there's a garter stitch ridge between each section (bar the last one where the pin is - ridge on the other side) which helps keep track of what's going on, and also makes it easier to check and get gauge. until we're able to get the yarn skeined, dyed, then balled, we've hit a little slump with angelina...so tina will have a major head start on us.