Swatches, swatches everywhere... and now I need a drink!

I'm trying (trying being the operative word here) to get on with the 'Elegant Drape Cardigan' from Creative Knitting. Tension has never before frustrated me like this! I did my yarn research and made sure that I matched weight, etc (I'm using Sublime Aran merino/silk/cashmere in the colour of 'Mole') and obediently set about with my tension square this afternoon.

I'm looking for 18 stitches per centimetre, using 5mm needles, and in the first attempt got 22-odd. Okay, so I upped the needles to 5.5mm and managed to get around 20 stitches per centimetre. Getting there. Third attempt, on 6mm needles got me 18. Finally.

Then I washed the swatch.

As my sister Lucy would say, 'Cheese and Rice'! The fabric stretched out to give me 16 stitches per centimetre, much to my chagrin. So, based on all the evidence before me in the form of three swatches, I began a fourth, back on the 5mm needles.

Today's lesson? Wash EVERY swatch, EVERY time. I feel a bit stupid having learned this lesson through trial and error even though I've read this rule something like a million times, but as I tried to explain to my family tonight:

"Yarrgh, knitting - she be a harsh mistress"

I mean, If I were a knitting pirate, I'd be saying stuff like that all the time.

In happier news, I completed My First Socks last night and wore them proudly everywhere today. I think I needed a badge that read, "I'm wearing hand-knit socks. Ask me how!"Here, you can see WonderBoy helping me model my lovely lolly-stripe socks. Incidentally, later today when I started swatching for the drape cardie, he came to me, picked up the skein of Sublime and rubbed it against his cheek, saying "ohhh... pretty yarn". I asked him what it felt like, and he replied "Shampoo".

Shampoo indeed. Bless his little (hand-knit!) socks!