Days Off are Always Busy, But Starting This Week I'll Have One More Day!

It's 5:40 am and my first load of laundry is in the dryer. It's already promising to be a busy day. I'm going to spend some of today knitting some gauge swatches - that will tell me what I want the setting on my machine to be for the sweater I have perched in my head. I've learned to pay attention to those ideas that take root, and this month starts my extra day off, so more time to both clean the house and get some personal projects under way. One thing is for sure, though. I'm not letting DH wiggle out of this one. He has to provide some serious reasons for me to work on my new "day off" from this point onward. 

Getting one more day off each week was one of the 
concessions DH made to keeping me working until 
we manage to wrap things up sometime this year. 
My first extra day comes on Friday and I can hardly 
wait! There's a lot that needs doing, and my single 
day off just isn't enough time to make headway into 
the clean-up or my personal projects. 

In a way, I don't like knitting gauge swatches. It has always seemed such a waste of yarn. But on the other side, without a gauge, doing more precise sizing like that required in garments, just isn't possible. If I'm sewing something and sew it too large, I can take in a seam. Sew it too small, and I have to scrap hours of effort and fabric. With knitting, I assume it's the same. The pattern has to fit properly, and the only way of knowing that is measurement and a bit of experimentation. I have a bit of wiggle room, I'm not making a skin-tight dress. But even for a sweater that I plan to wear over a turtleneck, I would like it to not be too bulky, and to have sleeves that aren't too long or too short. 

To machine knit a gauge swatch, you start out with cast-off 
yarn, then move into the yarn you want to use. You mark 
off an area four inches wide and knit 60 rows, marking your 
tension via eyelets before returning to cast-off yarn once 
again. This swatch was knitted at tension 5, indicated by 
the five eyelets at the bottom. 

I also have to return something from Amazon. The product actually was great, but I ordered the wrong thing and really don't have any use for it. My neighborhood Kohl's accepts Amazon returns and ships them at no charge, so I'll pop by there today with my shipping label and while I'm there, I'll take a quick cruise around the store. I don't visit Kohl's often, but have purchased mail order from them before and have liked what I've bought. 

Politically, we're walking on a fence. If one person wins, we're 
probably looking at gridlock for much of the next four years. 
If the other person wins, we have a shot at undoing a lot of 
bad decisions and laws that have been enacted over the past 
four years. It's an important election. 

On a final note, Georgia's election results will probably be final today. Right now it looks as if one Democrat was elected, the question now hinges on the second of the two elections. Will a Democrat carry that seat also? It is a make-or-break moment politically, and it all hinges on one candidate. 

On that note, I'm out of here. Lots to do today, and a long-missed convo with Aearwen this afternoon. I've missed our chats and we have a LOT to catch up on. Stay safe, be kind, and please wear your mask. I'll be back tomorrow.