So far, so good. My first few swatches are done and I have swatches 5 and 6 blocking while I work on the 7th one. I have also answered 7 questions and have already written the report. I feel that I am in very good shape and can hopefully finish the majority of the swatches before Monday. Perhaps I can send everything off in early May...that would be a month ahead of schedule.

I only had one mess up: Swatch 4. I should have read about bar increases before doing them. Of course I knew how to do them, so I thought I could tackle the swatch without referring to anything. Unfortunately, I learned a day late that the bar is to the left of the increase. So if you want mirrored increases you need to do it a little differently on both sides. If you want a 3 stitch selvedge, increase on the third stitch on the right and the fourth stitch on the left. I grabbed my binder, looked at my 4th swatch and found that, yes, my increases were uneven. I cursed, took it out of the binder, and started again.

Important lessons: knitting is more complex than it seems; research all techniques before you do them, just in case.

Happy knitting!

PS I don't think I'm finishing the lace shawl this weekend. I want to try to finish the swatches instead.