At the beginning of the week, I had so much hope for being done! I had my packet for about a week before I got started, and tomorrow will be one month since I received my packet. So far, it has been fairly easy. I have never looked so closely at my knitting before! I have definitely mastered weaving in the ends and blocking, and my understanding of why certain stitches are certain ways has greatly improved.

That is, until I got to swatch 13, a simple cable. I have knit cables before and I have never had this issue: the knit stitch before the purls on the right of the cable were becoming loose and it looked ugly. Of course, the non-knitter would never notice, but it stood out like a parka in Death Valley in the summer! I frantically searched for articles in the TKGA website for how to fix this. They suggested that I make sure the working yarn is fully in front of my needles before making the purl stitch after a knit stitch. That still didn't work because I had been doing that. A knit doctor told me to keep the stitches closer together, which has worked so far. Another strategy is to purl from the bottom for the purl stitch following, and to knit that stitch through the back loop on the wrong side. The knit doctor said that would work for a swatch, but it would be harder to remember with a more complex pattern. I tried it anyway, but the purl stitches stuck out a little more.

I finally finished my second swatch, after much more pulling and knitting extra carefully. While it looks better than the first, it still doesn't look "finished." I'm hoping the blocking will help...Any suggestions? I am a bit desperate!

My reflections this week have really dampened my spirits. When I enrolled in this program, it said "Masters." I already have a masters, so I thought this was very doable. However, the level 3 is like the PhD of knitting according to the knit doctor. PhD, eh? I was hoping to finish this program when I'm starting my other PhD. While I want to be able to design my own knits and knit anything I want, how can I get there if I can't make a stupid knit stitch behave?!? That one swatch really humbled me and made me reflect on knitting altogether. I have only struggled with the swatch one week. Perhaps the committee will give me some advice. I could also ask someone on ravelry, though I'm not sure about the etiquette in contacting a stranger...

Today I am more optimistic. Given a year, I'm sure I could learn everything in a particular level. I am a dedicated learner, know how to research, and those who know me know that I am not afraid to ask questions, except to strangers. I'm sure I could learn techniques in the set time period.

So while I am not going to finish within a month, by April 20, I hope to send everything out.

Happy knitting!