Cathy

 I cast off the gauge swatch for my shawl last night, but I didn't cut the yarn because I'm about 75% certain I want to rip it all out and start over.

Y'all, it is rowed out so badly. The front has a texture, and the back groups up into pairs of rows if you put even the tiniest stretch on it. I used a conventional purl instead of a Portuguese purl and it shows...

so yeah, after typing this I'm at 95% certain it's got to be redone, with Portuguese purl (or even dropping down a needle size on the purl rows, it's that bad).

dammit.

I will make it a more reasonable width though. I don't need an 8" wide swatch.