Happy Knitting

There was a lot more sweater knitting yesterday, but I am also very aware of hand strain.  I can knit on a sock almost all day without a problem as long as I keep stretching and take proper breaks, but the sweater requires careful knitting, supported knitting, and leaves me with a fair bit of time for other less stressful on my hand knitting.  Since I really do want my hand to properly heal, I am taking it slow and careful.

Though there haven't been full days devoted to other knitting, a lot of other knitting is underway. It is inconsequential but for one thing.  

Though this one might not be a really great dishcloth, but well, it is a skein of yarn that would otherwise have no use in my stash.  

This is a skein of Eden Madil, a lovely pure bamboo rayon.  I bought this skein as a standby on another project, in case I ran out of yarn.  It did not get used and it ended up in this bin.  It should probably be a cloth more used as a 'spa' cloth but seriously, it will end up in the kitchen.  A yarn with no purpose so I am giving it one, however lowly that purpose may be.  

And yes that is a straight needle and that is part of what I wanted to show you this morning. The dishcloth bin needle is a 4 mm needles.  I did cast on with it, but it was far too loose and floppy to be good for anything. This yarn needed something smaller particularly if I meant to use it as a dusting or washing cloth.  The needle case is out in the living room so I grabbed as set that was to hand, a straight 3.25 mm.  

I may not use them much, but this needle has the perfect tip for soft bamboo, blunt.  The difference in working with the yarn on this particular set of 3.25 mm needles was apparent almost from the first stitch on the needle. Everything went so much more smoothly and I didn't have to be at all careful about splitting the yarn.

This is a very old set of needles, probably dating back to the mid 70's or early 80's .  It's one of several needles from back in the day, with this blunt style tip, in my collection.  It's almost rounded it is such a short slope.  If you look closely, you can see that it is only half as long as the Addi 4 mm needle tip is till it gets to the full diameter of the needle.  

Every needle style, straight, circular, straight shorts, has a place.  Every kind of tip has a thing it does better than other tips.  Every material needles are made out of has a place in your needle stash and every knitter has a preferred blend of each.  No one style is necessarily perfect for every job and sometimes, when you grab something different than you usually use, you are surprised by how much a small difference can change a task and how much pleasure that little change can be.

Whatever else this dishcloth will be, it is happy knitting.