A handy tip for swatching

Every now and then, and mostly in between projects, I just feel like playing with yarn.  Right now I'm having fun exploring lace stitch patterns and making variations to use in some original designs I'm thinking about.  My inspiration for rethinking lace came from an article by Deborah Newton  in the Summer 2013 issue of Interweave magazine in which she shows how she takes a basic unit of lace and graphs it into variations.  She does an amazing job of visually breaking down the complexity of a pattern and showing the endless possibilities and combinations you can create.

So, with her article as my guide, I devised a simple variation of diagonal chevron lace by adding 2 garter stitches in between the 6 stitch repeat, and it gave a very different look to the pattern!  Here's my swatch:

This swatch was made from Shepherd's Wool (Stonehedge Mills) color raspberry on US size 8 needles.  Have you ever swatched, blocked, and then forgotten to write down the size needles you used?  Here's a tip I learned at my LYS.  Put small knots in the tail of your yarn - one for each needle size you used.  In other words, I used size 8 needles so I put 8 small knots in the tail of the yarn.  That way I always have a handy-dandy reminder! 



Note the 8 little knots - I circled one for easy reference!