I made a For Real swatch last night. Actually, it was kind of late night last night, as in, I cast on at 1 AM and started it but got really disturbed by the “To Catch a Predator” special on MSNBC that I just kept knitting the more weirded out I was by all the pervs. I am trying really hard not to think of this as the To Catch a Predator swatch, as it really is the Sideways Spencer Redux swatch.

I have been buying way too much yarn lately, so now I must justify it by actually using it. During the Memorial Day weekend sales, I hit up two LYSes–one of them twice–and came back with three sweaters’ worth of yarn. One of them will be the SSR (because Sideways Spencer…is a really long name for a pattern).

I know, we’re on the precipice of summer and I’ve got wool sweaters on the brain but I really have a logic to this. At both my jobs, the temperature is always kept really cold–maybe my employers figure that freezing the minions will cause them to work harder? Produce more? Who knows, but I don’t need to catch pneumonia on top of everything else. So I think the SSR will be a nice cover-up for those chilly summer indoor workdays.

I guess this means I’ve finally overcome my aversion to the swatch. If only colorwork and steeking were as easy! (Here is where someone will inevitably try to convince me that colorwork is easy but I am NOT BUYING IT. All those strands and dangly bits just scare the crap out of me.)

I will say, though, that I proudly knit the cables on this swatch without a cable needle and will do so when I actually knit the sweater. It’s easy since it’s just a four-stitch cable and really does speed along the process.

oh knitting, without you, where would I be?

ETA: forgot to mention that the yarn I’m using is Malabrigo Worsted Merino. And if you haven’t heard from Ravelry yet, Malabrigo recently had a mill/warehouse fire. Sounds like no people were hurt, and that’s the most important thing! They did have some considerable structural damage, though.