Knitting what I preach

I really knit swatches... to almost everything.. This is just some of them.. I use them to get familiar with the yarn, how it knits up, how it behaves after washed, to determine gauge, figure out which needle to use

To try out certain patterns...



 

To see if a color combination works or not, or which one is better.. (with this I went with the lighter red).

And this is just for my current project...I am pretty excited about it :-)