Master Hand Knitting Program Progress: Swatch 1 over and over...

I announced back in April, 2010 in THIS post that I was tackling the Master Hand Knitting Program again.  I started by doing swatch #3 a few times until it was acceptable, then, I put the entire project aside.  By "aside" I don't mean in a closet somewhere, or stored away out of sight... what I mean is the project materials sit right next to my desk where I do my knitting, internet surfing, blogging and working.  The materials stare at me and taunt me that I haven't been acting on this project at ALL. 

Since I'm discovering places to add knitting in my life even with a heavy professional work load, I am revisiting the idea of progressing on the Master Hand Knitting Program Level I.  The other day I picked it back up and reviewed swatch #1 that had been napping on my needles.  With only about 2" of garter stitch left to do on this swatch (which looked really good) it made sense to at the very least complete it!  After about 1" of knitting I came upon the knitter's flat tire; a manufacturer's knot in the yarn (ugh!) and decided that instead of weaving in ends on my swatch for a program such as this that I should just start the swatch over.  (After all, the submitted materials are supposed to represent my "best" work!)

What I didn't do was re-wind the entire skein of yarn to be sure that there were no other knots present.  It's a bit like knitting Russian Roulette, but I feel as though the chances are low that there would be more knots (and if there ARE more knots, making a swatch isn't THAT difficult)!

So this morning I'm finishing up swatch #1 and making notes about the references for the techniques used in it's fabrication.  The program requires not only knitting the swatches but also providing references for the cast on, ribbing, increase, bind off, etc. used.  It feels good to make progress even if I'm not promising myself a certain quantity of swatches a day, or week, or month.  I know this process is going to take a while and instead of focusing on the daunting tasks ahead I'm going to see how it feels to just focus on one swatch.  It's like knitting a major project; if we focus on the few stitches in front of us and do a little at a time, we will soon be able to look back over our progress and see how far we have come!

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