Instead of Making SLS #2...

...I knitted three Dulaan hats in Lamb's Pride Bulky in April's Project Spectrum Colors, orange and yellow. The hat on the left in a corrugated rib hat based on Mason-Dixon Kay's Olympics Dulaan Hats. On the right, you see my very first foray into a stranded pattern, sort of based on Amber from Magknits. In the center, you see what was left over when all that was done. Not bad for three skeins and less than $25.

The other way I avoided my Simply Lovelies was to swatch and swatch. The yellow swatches were homework for my "Crochet for Knitters" class I took on Saturday (I learned some crochet! And...I think I liked it, a little...) and the blue swatches are for Green Gable. I decided to see if indeed my flat gauge varied from my gauge in the round. I decided this after I had already knitted well into my flat swatch and realized that for a sweater knitted in the round, I should have knitted a swatch in the round too.

So, always eager to turn my boneheaded mistakes into learning experiences, I finished the flat swatch and made an equivalent round one, and whaddya know? My swatch was off, my a full stitch per inch! I still don't quite have gauge for the sweater, but as it is a top-down, I think I may jump right in with one needle larger.

But first, I will knit some on my Simply Lovelies.

BTW, Picovoli is done, blocked, and ready to be photographed, but the weather here in Philadelphia has been so bad, I haven't been able to do it. Soon, I promise!