Swatchy Goodness

Last night I cast on to figure out how many stitches I am going to need to make the girls ponchos out of all that Micro-Spun I bought. I am going to do the two rectangle poncho shape. The question is of course am I going to make the rectangle lengthwise or width wise. I am considering doing one of each just for variety. That way the girls would have "matching" ponchos, but each would be unique. We shall see what happens. I may change my mind before all is said and done. I am glad that I did the swatching. From that I can figure out just how many stitches I will need to cast on per inch. The yarn calls for a size 4 needle to be used. I wanted a looser knit fabric, so I tried out a size 6, and then a size 8. This swatch is made using the size 8 needles. Another thing I found out what it was like to work with the yarn. Oh boy does it like to unravel. I had to knot the beginning end so it wouldn't all come apart on me. Then working with it I would sometimes have to go back and re-do a stitch because one little strand of the ply would become separated (like in the photo) and make the stitch look funky. I will have to be careful as I knit. Otherwise there will be a lot of froggin' going on in my future.