Dagnabbit

In between working on the Gansey Class notes, goofing off with the old catalogue (Till noon. Seriously), and scrolling around the Internet, I knit a little on the red sweater sleeves.

Both sleeves appear to match, both sleeves caps are complete. All that needs doing is to knit to the cuff. Ought to be easy right?

But no. Look closely at the pictures. You can see the line right where I switched to double points. Sloppy normal knitting above, incredibly decent, even knitting below.

I'm not really enjoying knitting the sleeves. There is so much fabric to move all the time, and the dpns, at this size, feel awkward and uncomfortable. Why awkward and uncomfortable is giving me new incredibly even knitting skilz is beyond me.

I'm going to have to have a 4mm 16 inch needle with nickel tips. Without it, I don't see me getting out of this kerfuffle. The store doesn't have any in stock, and cannot seem to keep 4mm needles in stock no matter how often she orders. The city is having a crisis where every man jack of us needs 4 mm needles.

I have always felt that 16 inches was an unnecessary needle length. You can use dpns as easily without the expense of needles devoted solely to sleeves. Right? Apparently not.

I tried longer and magic looping. Gauge problems.

I tried bamboo dpns. Gauge problems.

I dug out 5 metal needles. Gauge problems.

I even tried a slightly shorter Denise needles. Too few stitches to get round properly.

This is just not the time for craptacular gauge to go missing. Not now with the just the sleeves and finishing details to do.

I'd be a whole lot more pleased with this difference in gauge if the whole sweater was the tidy bit, and I just needed to be tidier for the last bit. But nooooooooo, the whole sweater is a little sloppy. I have to go searching for untidy, looking for sloppy knitting.

Not that I am frustrated. Sigh.

There is one more thing to try. I am going to get some 4.5 mm dpns, and see if I can't meet my usual sloppy loose gauge.

Or a 4.5 mm 16 inch needles.

Or...