Do you have a pile of swatches from previous knitting projects?
What do you do with them? You could put them in a journal type book with a notation of project, needles, amount, etc. I always mean to do this, but that part of my organizational skills escapes me.
What I usually do, is rip the swatch out and use in the project. If it hasn’t been too long since I knitted the swatch, I can just use it without any troubles. But what if you are nearing the end of your project and it has been weeks, months since the swatch was done and you just gotta use it. In fact, that swatch is worth gold to you, because you have absolutely run out. So you rip it out and stare aghast at the kinks and ripples in your yarn. What to do, what to do??? Wind your yarn loosely into a skein (not the ball that you immediately put it into!). You could wind it around your thumb and down to elbow and back again . Tie it in several places to keep the yarn from tangling. You’ve probably purchased hand dyed skeins that have ties in several places. Well, that’s what you need to do. Thoroughly wet the yarn, no rough stuff please, squeeze out excess water and hang in the shower to dry. Don’t weight it as this can change the character of the yarn from the original and it will look different when you join it to your knitting.
So, if joining your swatches to make an afghan, or pasting into a project journal are not for you. Rip it out and use it in your project.
