Here’s the swatch for my non-navy navy sweater.

(I apologize for the bad photos; my camera has a lousy flash and I was taking pictures in the basement with no light!)

The bottom section is double-stranded with size 7 needles. The middle stripe is single-stranded on size 7 needles; I abandoned it pretty quickly when I realized that it wouldn’t look as Habu-y as I thought. The top section is double-stranded again, with size 9 needles.

I think I like the bottom better. The top is about 11.5 stitches over 4 inches, and the bottom is 14 stitches. The Phildar pattern calls for 25 stitches, so I ripped back and continued the swatch with a single strand and size 5 needles. I’m not sure if I want to knit as tight a gauge as the pattern calls for, but I think I should consider single-stranded a little bit more. It’s alpaca, so I don’t want it to be too thick lest it kill me with warmth.

Here’s the update to the swatch:

My blocking pins are still in my apartment so I had to do with some sewing pins (I don’t know what they’re called) and I ran out of those. I had to find some substitutes; I am going to call this the most unnecessary “un-vention” ever.

Heehee, it looks like an alligator hand puppet is eating my towel. Man, I miss my blocking pins.

Bonus blocking photo: Here’s my shawl being blocked!

I planned to finish this shawl by Monday so I’d have a few days for it to block and dry. What did I actually do? I finished it by Monday and then forgot to block it until last night.

Memory: 1
Eve: 0

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