I just got my level 1 instructions, so i'm hungrily eating up all the information here and out in space- i notice alot of people have to resubmit, and i'm curious: do most people (everyone?) have to resubmit something, and do many people end up resubmitting more than once?

Most knitters have to resubmit something. The majority are for mistakes that could have been avoided. For example, in Level 1, the instructions for some of the swatches say to make the increase (or decrease) every other right side row. If the increases are every right side row we will ask for the swatches to be done. Accurately following instructions is very important skill for a knitter who uses patterns.

Knitters very rarely have to resubmit something twice. If there is a major problem with tension, we may ask that swatches be redone before Level 1 is passed.

The evaluation criteria for Levels 2 & 3 are much more stringent but if you have gone through Level 1 you have a better idea of what the standards are.

The best advice I can give you is to look at the On Your Way to the Masters articles that are archived on this site. They will give you a very good idea of the level of work we are expecting.

Arenda

Similar questions are going through my mind. I have made up all of my swatches, but I am not satisfied with the blocking. I liked the idea of complete saturation in a basin followed by spinning in the washing machine, but how to label them so I will know which swatch is which, but not marking them with safety pins or other device eludes my brain. Perhaps I will tie different colors of yarn. I wonder if there is a demerit for colors bleeding in our swatches?

What I am finding as I read the questions and review my swatches is that I did fail to read some of the directions, or I changed direction for my decreases (left leaning versus right leaning) half way through the swatch. I have a growing assortment of void swatches which one of the articles suggested we save for comparison and progress.

I am having fun, even as I knit a second or third iteration of certain swatches!

cgch

When I blocked my swatches in batches, I used a thread to attach a small piece of 3x5 card to each swatch, on which I wrote the swatch number in pencil (back and front). The paper survived the brief water encounter, and the use of pencil ensured that there was no ink to run. When the swatches were dry, I used the same thread to attach the real tags--it was already attached to the swatches in the correct location.

This worked for me. I also like the idea of using bits of colored yarn--you might even want to consider using the same yarn with different length tails: a 5-inch tail for swatch 5, a 7-inch tail for swatch 7, etc. This could avoid the possibility of colors getting onto your swatches. Beads or plastic stitch markers could be temporarily attached to the swatches with a length of swatch yarn--7 beads for swatch 7, etc. This is pretty complicated, but I think it would work well.

There are a million ways to do this that should do no harm to the swatches. Let us know if you create a new innovation!

There are only a couple of swatches that you'll need to be careful about keeping straight -- namely the decrease swatches. The rest of them are obvious -- you're not going to mistake the swatch that has k1p1 ribbing and stockinette for the swatch that has k2p2 ribbing with garter stitch, for example.

If you're not confident that you can read your knitting, you should also keep the increase swatches separate from each other. Those increases are distinguishable, but if you aren't able to read what you did by looking at them, don't wash and spin them together. The lace swatches might be tricky to keep straight if you aren't able to read your decreases.

I would recommend studying your swatches to see what the actual differences are between the results of two techniques. If you truly can't see a difference between the results, that's your cue to separate them for washing and blocking. If you can see the difference, but aren't able to figure out what the technique you used was, re-knit the swatches and watch what you're doing so you can understand what's happening, rather than just following the directions. The point isn't just to create swatches based on the directions, but to understand when and how the techniques differ from each other, so that you can make choices about what techniques you might want to use when you design or modify patterns.

You will be asked to resubmit a swatch if you did not follow the directions. The ability to read directions and follow them is something a master knitter must be able to do. Generally when a knitter is not happy with a project it is because they did not take gauge seriously (it doesn't fit) or they didn't follow the pattern exactly (the armholes are too small or some such thing). That is why we are so picky about this. If you want your garments to look "handmade" rather than "homemade", it is important that you pay attention to small details, like decreases slanting in the same direction on the side of a neckline. It is our hope that knitters will not only knit the swatches according to the directions and then look at the swatches with a critical eye.

Arenda

Rox,

Thanks for the ideas... I think long tails might get tangled and make a mess of my swatches creating more blocking problems, but the idea of beads or even knots on a shorter tail could be VERY USEFUL. Of course not all of the swatches require the wet blocking which reduces the confusion factor as does the reading of the stitches.

THANKS!
cgch