Aloha!
There is a new podcast up!
After quite some time since I had the pleasure of sitting down with you, I have a new podcast to share!
I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did creating it!
Quick points of interest:
∞ The Hats Off thread is here: click this link!
∞ The free handspun hat pattern releases to all knitters on the newsletter list. Want one? Click here! The pattern will be mailed **FREE** to everyone who has signed up on or before 12 March. You will see the pattern pdf download on 13 March 2015 in your inbox! =) Nothing could be simpler! Everyone else will be able to get the pattern on 27 March! 
∞ Ready to deepen you understanding of yarn? Why not look in to Begin Your Swatching Adventures!
∞ Want the Swatch Hat patten? It is almost ready for you! It will first be heading out to Swatch Like You Mean it Class participants and Space Cadet mini-skein club members. For everyone else the pattern will be available for $1.00 on 11 March 2015.
YOUR $1.00 purchase will go directly to help fund the learning project my daughter and I are about to embark on: K1R1:Knit1Reach1. Your $1.00 buys you a hat pattern with more versatility that you can imagine! That same dollar will provide yarn and needles for girls in our area interested in the art of knitting!
∞ You have until Sunday March 8th at 10 pm EST to enter the most wonderful—wonderfully easy!—giveaway! It celebrates the new design I have with Quince and Co. Scarves, etc 2015 collection. Have you entered? Pop over and try! But you better hurry! Link is here!
My best aloha to you!
It was such a delight spending time together once again! We should do it again very soon…like tweet me now! 😉
~Mel
WITH∞MEL 
Once upon a time there was a girl with purple hair. She loved to knit. Her time and her yarn was precious to her so she wouldn’t ‘waste’ it on swatching. After all, she always knitted to gauge anyway!
Then she met Mel. And Mel taught her all about speaking ‘swatch-eze’. She learned to listen to her swatch, to hear and learn from what it had to say.
Now, she swatches. Not all the time mind you….. I mean, come on! REALLY!!! Sometimes the itch to cast on and get started is just too much.
BUT before embarking on a big project, one that involves a large investment of that precious knitting time and yarn, that purple haired girl will swatch. More than that though, she uses the swatch to practice the pattern. If it calls for stitches to be picked up, she picks up stitches along the edge of that swatch. Decreases? Increases? Cast offs? Cast on’s? All are tried and tested before that project makes the needles.
So now I’m more likely to make a project I love, one that fits, one that I’ve enjoyed knitting rather than one I’ve knitted venom into because I’ve struggled with it.
I encourage you to have a look at the Swatch Like You Mean It class. It’s money well spent.
Not sure? Check out the #SLYMI hashtag on Twitter and Instagram. Have a look at the fun the students had with their studies.
Ellen x
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giggles erupted reading this! playing with yarn can be so much fun! {glad you always share yourself!}
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As it goes every so often I am reminded A) I purchased SLYMI class June 21, 2014 and have yet to take it and B) I need to take it BEFORE I start youngest granddaughter’s birthday sweater. That having been acknowledged I shall begin my schooling right after I finish the Sloane Shawl KAL I am currently participating in (it is a birthday gift for my MIL). Meln,you are the BEST! I have missed your adorable cute face and voice for much too long now. Heading to enjoy the podcast now! ❤
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You must start!!! You’re missing out on a treat! It’s so much more than just Swatches. Throw out the idea of 4×4 inch square. Ptchar! They’re so out dated! 😉
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That’s a big issue with me! I always purchase one additional skein, hank, or ball required so it is no big deal to do a larger swatch. Thanks for cheering me on!
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I like the idea of Swatching.
There, I’ve said it aloud and don’t feel a bit bashful to call a swatch a swatch.
From sox to cardigans
If it weren’t for swatching, even if for only finding my stitch gauge,
I’d have never had my perfect fitting sox – all forty pair in my sock drawers.
Nor would I’d have ever have the four fit-for-me cardigans that I can proudly say,
I knit them myself !
Thanks for your enthusiastic and inspirational re SWATCHING post, gal.
hugs ‘n smiles
Gerry
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You have a GREAT attitude towards swatching! I am glad that you don’t cringe at the mention of the word! =)
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Mel,
I loved your SLYMI class! I still use my notebook and your helpful hints every time I begin a project😊
Ellen
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Oh Ellen! That is so wonderful to hear! How has your knitting been of late? Anything on your needles now you are excited about?
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I’ll have to say I’ve discovered that swatching can be fun and I no longer dread the idea of swatching and seeing the different ways my yarn reacts and whether it does what I expect for a given pattern or whether it would be better used for something else. And amazingly the yarn does talk with the needles to tell me what to make.
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