St. Brigid and Swatch Inferiority Complex

Since I had most of the day to myself, I thought I would use part of it to take the opportunity to get out the St. Brigid pattern and read it through to see what I have to look forward to this fall. I thought a good place to start was with St. Brigid herself.

From what I can tell, the legend of the pattern's namesake, not unlike the more famous Irish patron St. Patrick, has been so embellished over the centuries that it is difficult to sort fact from fiction. Brigid, pronounced "Brij-id", "Bree-id", or "Bride", is always portrayed in iconography with a cross woven from rushes and with fire. The cross because she is said to have made it to explain the passion of Christ to pagans. (Again, not unlike St. Patrick who used the three-leaf clover to explain the Trinity.) And the fire comes from all kinds of stories about her life that involve fire and also from the eternal flame that the nuns kept at her sanctuary. I'm not sure if any of this had anything to do with Alice Starmore's design, but I'll try and remember her weaving her cross as I'm weaving my cable designs.

I am going to make this sweater from Jamieson's Shetland Heather in color #108 Moorit, which is kind of a butterscotchy brown. (Earth tone? What a surprise!) In order to get gauge, I ended up knitting on a size 5 needle. Actually, I can't get a perfect gauge with this yarn, but I get the closest on a 5 and still get a fabric that will make a nice sweater--27 rows and 18-19 sts. = 10 cm. I must knit at a ridiculously loose tension, and I every time I knit a swatch I feel like I must be doing something wrong to be so far off the average on every pattern. It's gotten to the point where I won't even start the swatch on the prescribed needle size. I don't know why I let it bother me. I've been knitting a long time, and most things turn out pretty well. Funny how a four inch square can make us doubt ourselves.

So, part of my day was spent with St. Brigid. I've made my swatch and some notes to make a few size adjustments, and now I'll pack it away until the temps drop this fall. It's time for Olympic knitting!