WIP Wednesday

Only WIPs this week - not a single thing off my needles. That's on purpose though - I need to get ready for StashDash 2015 after all! ;)

Becca's Rainbow Latte socks are almost done! Just two more heels to go, and they'll be ready to go in the mail :) Hope they fit! :)

The baby blanket for Nora is coming along swimmingly as well! I'm enjoying it more than I thought I would, and am actually ahead of schedule! Woohoo :)
It's awfully colourful though! Hope Nora won't get nightmares from it ;)

Also the Conjunction Cowl has finally seen some action. This was actually supposed to be my London knitting, but I got sidetracked, and only really got knitting on it this week. I'm just about halfway, and love the way my homespun yarn is knitting up - it almost looks like stained glass windows!

When Knitting Attacks
But alas - all is not well in knitting land. I'd found a lovely summer top I wanted to knit out of lace weight, and used a couple of evenings this past week to swatch for it. The yarn was SO amazingly soft I already couldn't wait to wear the finished garment.

But that wasn't to be :-/ I'd learned from previous mistakes (!!) and decided to wash the swatch the same way I would wash the finished garment - i.e. machinewash cold in a mesh bag (I don't handwash clothes - not even my knitwear). Good thing I did too! As it came out of the wash completely felted, and had shrunk by about 10%!
I was SO disappointed! But not nearly as heartbroken as I would have been if it had been the finished garment. This is why you swatch, people! ... and treat the swatch like you would the finished garment. Lesson learned! And that yarn will now be saved for a shawl or another accessory, that doesn't require as frequent washings as a summer top, and that I therefore won't mind having to handwash.

*sigh*