Laced Up

A bit of a two part post today. First the progress, then the public service announcement.

I completed the lace neckband for Audrey. 19 intervals of stretchy garter stitch lace. Gotta say that I didn't really get off on knitting this stuff. It wasn't that hard, but it wasn't that easy to remember, either and I never really memorized the chart (April actually created a very helpful chart and shared it on the Audrey blog). I almost put it down a couple of times, but reminded myself that it would be a shame to stop this close to the finish line.

A Lace Band for Audrey -- 19 Repeats

Since that long stretched out piece doesn't give you a good sense for what the lace actually looks like, here's a photo from a little closer perspective.

Audrey Lace Up Close

I'm all patienced out for the evening. So attaching the lace to the body of the sweater will have to happen tomorrow.

The public service announcement of this post has to do with machine washing and drying my Phil Ruban swatch in anticipation of doing the same to the top I made out of Phil Ruban.

Washed and Dressed Phil Ruban Swatch

Over all, the washing and drying process doesn't have much of a negative impact on the look of the swatch. The swatch did, however, undergo some shrinkag. The original swatch was 20 stitches and 27 rows to 4", the washed swatch is 21 stitches and 30 rows to 4" (in other words, what used to be 4" x 4" is now 3-3/4" x 3-1/2" (most of the shrinkage was in the vertical direction. So if you're planning on working with this yarn, I'd recommend doing the same experiment -- it's definitely not shrink resistant.