Head Cold From Hell

Usually being sick does not suck that much for me because I kick it within 48 hours, I only get sick once a year, and I can spend that time in bed watching TV on the internet and knitting. Right now I have this cold that has been going around, and people I have surveyed say it lasts anywhere from 2 weeks to several months (with pinkeye). Right now I am in day 5 and I will spare you some of the mucusy details, but the thing is I feel so crappy I don't even feel like knitting.

In between back episodes of Lost and Friday Night Lights (I don't even LIKE football) I have managed to get a start on the new Deep Breath. I realized that part of my swatch phobia is due to:

1) If I bought the needles for the project, and then swatched it and realized I need smaller ones, I definitely don't want to go out and get ANOTHER pair. Having a set of Boye interchangeables helps with that a lot.

2) If I make a swatch, I tend to count the stitches and say "eh, close enough!" This is related to point 1. I unconsciously round up or down so that I don't have to switch needles.

3) I can make a swatch that is spot on, but this whole blocking at the end thing has me freaked out. It's a wild card.

4) I realized that when I knit in round, continental, it's much looser than when I swatch in continental on straights. I guess I could swatch in the round but that seems like I would have to cast on and knit a ton of stitches. Jenn started telling me some way she does it, but after the 3rd or 4th mathematical computation I was lost. I will get her to explain it to me again when my head doesn't feel like it's been injected with Brie.

So I made a mini swatch, just to confirm point four, but not large enough to actually be useful. I'm going down 2 needle sizes to a 6, and this is cotton so much less springy than the wool I used previously. I hope I don't overshoot and make it too small and tight, but I figure since it is top down I can correct course along the way.