Back into the swing of things

After my last post, I started thinking about what should I work on to get me back into the swing of things. I have 2 projects currently on the needles, but both are very simple and mindless and I knew that I would need something fun to get me motivated. That's when I went to the wonderful world of Ravelry and searched all sorts of projects/patterns to see what would be the perfect project. Finally after deciding on a general category of what I wanted to make, I was able to narrow down my pattern choices.

That's when I saw the beautiful Quinn bag, and decided it would be a fun project and the perfect size to tote around my little EeePC. I went home, searched through my numerous boxes and tubs of yarn and was ready to go.

If you remember, one of my crafty goals is to actually knit swatches up for each project before I start knitting. Most of the projects I have made before didn't really require a swatch, but if I'm going to start knitting sweaters and other fitted items I need to start making it a habit. In the past when I've tried knitting swatches, things haven't turned out quite right or the swatch turned out great but the project was off.

I was nervous about knitting a swatch with a cable design, since simple knit/purl swatches didn't come out right before...but I was trying to stick to my crafty goals, so I casted on for the swatch. I was suprised and amazed to find out that my swatch came out perfectly on the first try! Of course with my past experiences, that didn't mean that the project would come out quite as perfect.

I've been doing a little knitting on the bag, when I have a spare few minutes, and luckily the actually project has the same results as the swatch. This is just the encouragement I need to keep me swatching!