Lap Blanket Turned Experimental Swatch

I want to make a couple lap blankets for charity. The preemie tuck blanket turned out so nice I thought I'd do something similar. I had another idea rolling around in my head. It was using a ribber punch card. I couldn't seem to wrap my brain around how a punch would work with the ribber and yet I have 5 for that very reason. There is no card reader on the ribber. 

I found the section in my ribber manual that talked about using the ribber punch card to make Punch Pin Tuck.  So, I set up my machine and ribber according to the chart.  I did the circular cast one fine.  Once I started knitting the Punch Pin Tuck the tension was way too tight according to the chart.  Tension of 1.  I moved it up to 3 then 5 then 7 then went straight to ten.  After 12 rows of knitting and having to hold my machine in place by spreading my knees out to put pressure on the knitting stand legs I knew there would be no blanket.  After 12 rows I felt like I had taken a 30 minute aerobics class.  

After all that work I didn't want it to go to waste.  I decided to fight through at least 12 more rows to make a swatch big enough to what kind of pattern I had going.  I wanted to know if it would be worth my while to try this again with a smaller yarn.

Needless to say it would be worth my while to try again.  The swatch is just gorgeous!  It's even a good size to make a headband.