Swatching all night with nothing to show for it. ergh. Not all that long ago, I spun up jacob fleece and plyed it with some black cashmere resulting in 716 yards. You may remember this because someone came up with the great idea of making Boar a vest, using the handspun for the front and something else for the back. So after lots and lots of Internet searching and computers acting quite touchy I came up with the Greystones Vest pattern.

I begin a gauge swatch and suspect that the yarn isn’t doing the pattern justice or vice versa. I also discover that the pattern is written in the round, and I really need to knit this flat since I don’t have enough of the handspun to do anything but the front. I spend a considerable amount of time trying to mathematically divide this pattern, since I suspect just splitting it in half won’t work. I come to the conclusion that it truly won’t work, but don’t trust that conclusion and spend another hour or two proving it all over again. I spend a bit of time tossing around the idea that maybe I could crunch the numbers and make it work — but who am I kidding? I am not that bright.

Back to the drawing board ……. I hit my magazine stash. I decide to start with my Knitter’s magazines, get to the third to last one and find out it is devoted to vests! I find a pattern called moss stitch rib and start a swatch. It doesn’t seem to be showing up all that well. Maybe I knit it wrong how can a rib stitch not show up?? Rip it out, try again. argh!

you know you are barking up the wrong tree when you are making your swatch all the while thinking about all the other yarn that this pattern would look good in.

I do believe all this swatching has led to the conclusion that this handspun will sit in the stash for a better opportunity.