Swatch!

I got out my box of swatches recently and reviewed them all. Its so enjoyable to sort them out and look at the colors and the patterns. Like most knitters I start a project by knitting a swatch or two to test the gauge and I save them all in a nice blue Tiffany's box (that once held wedding present beer mugs--my only Tiffany's present ever). Its not necessary to save them. but I'm always so excited when I start a knitting project that the swatch becomes imbued the excitement and afterwards I just can't part with them.

Laying them out to photograph I went back through all my memories of knitting projects. I also knit swatches just to try an interesting pattern stitch from time to time. Here's a few of them. If you are a knitter, save your knitting history that lives in your swatches. You'll impress yourself one day when you get them out and see how industrious you've been. They also serve the practical purpose of allowing you to save enough yarn of a finished project to later on mend a hole or sew on a new button, although you can always just save a few yards of yarn wound in a bobbin for that.

Maybe one day I'll make them all into a crazy quilt knitted throw or blanket. Until that time they will continue to live in their nice little box and from time to time I'll take them out and mentally review my projects and all the colors and textures once again.