In Praise of the Swatch

This photo is a good illustration of why you should always swatch before starting a project. Not only do you get to know your yarn, your needles, your gauge, etc., but you get to practice. See the cables at the bottom? The way they sort of wander around for no apparent reason? That's not what they're supposed to do. The tidy little interlaced bundle at the top, my second go at the pattern, is what we're shooting for. Incidentally, the bottom is also what happens when you're knitting while watching "The Matrix Reloaded" and kind of want to see that freeway-top-of-the-truck fight scene; the top is when you've switched to "Practical Magic" and don't care at all what you miss.