Week 13....of the Super Stitches Knitting Project

This week's challenges were:
1) Marriage Lines Panel
2) Heart and Star Motifs
3) Lighnting Panel

(I need to find a more contrasting background, don't I...)

SWATCH 1: Marriage Lines Panel
This was a 13 stitch repeat, so I added a selvedge of 3 stitches on each side to bring up the stitch count. The pattern itself was easy to work, and it was much more attractive than the Lightning Panel, just because instead of one purl stitch there are two.

Marriage Lines Panel

The stitch is named for marriage because it is supposed to represent the ups and downs of married life. Which doesn't really make sense to me because these zig zags obviously go from side to side.

SWATCH 2: Heart and Star Motif
This panel is a stitch repeat of 19 stitches. I added 8 selvedge stitches total to bring it up to 27, which is closer to the row repeat of 30. This led to a pretty big swatch, but I know throughout this book I will end up with swatches of all sizes and I'm just hoping they all find a way to fit in the finished quilt.

Heart and Star Motif

I don't know if you can tell, but this swatch is really bent out of shape. I think blocking will even it out, and when it is sewn into the quilt nobody will be able to tell, but right now it looks pretty awful. Also, I decided that I would much rather knit the two motifs separately. A 30 row repeat is pretty daunting, especially when you only need 15 rows for each pattern. I also think the star doesn't look very star-like and that I would substitute a different star pattern if I really wanted to put a star on something. Also, looking at the right side of the heart, you can see that there is a certain amount of looseness and general unattractiveness. Looking at the picture in the book I noticed the same thing so I'm hoping it's not me but just an aspect of the pattern.

SWATCH 3: Lightning Panel
Which makes me think of Harry Potter.

Lightning Panel

This was a stitch repeat of 11, which is why I did two repeats. I'm trying to keep all the swatches about the same size, but it's proving to be pretty difficult. Especially when I reach the edge stitches, which I doubt will be included in the quilt. IF said quilt ever happens.
Ah, well.

Next week we have:
1) Open Diamond Panel
2) Rough Marriage Lines
3) Seeded Flags Panel

Happy Knitting!