Swatching required

Feeling a little more confident after producing two garments that came out the right size. I am still working on using up my stash. I have plans for a circular yoked sweater, white acrylic with celtic fairisle patterns on the yoke - more for the experience than the garment - and a ribbed jumper in a brown tweed for the Cog. I need to start swatching, but I haven't much time at home this week.

I should have started it on Saturday, really, but I was a bit unfocused and added some more scans to the MK101 blog instead. I spent most of last week brushing up on my Passap skills because I went to the local uni and gave the teacher some pointers. Alas, the machine was almost seized and needs some serious TLC before I can teach anybody anything more than the basic principles of operation. Gobs of fluff were coming out of it. Luckily no rust - it'll be fine once it's had a wash n' brush up!

Plodding along with the second mini-mochi sock. The yarn's an unplyed single and very fluffy - I'm not sure if I dare knit the other ball on the knitting machine, I'm not sure the yarn could take the strain of a machine. These are going to be house socks, methinks - too much wear and they feel as if they might just melt away on the breeze! They are 20% nylon, perhaps it's just the merino making me think they're not tough enough?

Susan Guagliumi (website: http://www.guagliumi.com/) wrote a famous machine-knitting book, called "Hand- Manipulated Stitches", which has recently been reprinted. She has a new one out, "More hand-manipulated stitches" and I have snapped up a copy from Metropolitan. Has to be one of the first major MK releases in quite some time. Can't wait to see what it's like!