What else you can do with Knitting Needles

Cool, Yes?

A Penchant for Little Things

For anyone who has hung around this blog long enough, it will come as no surprise, that I have a penchant for small things.  I have a few books I have spoken of and many more that I haven't.  I am pretty sure I have shown a few pictures, though in my searching, I couldn't find a time when I did.

 I love little things.  I have them hiding in a box, because I have no where to put them.  While I would love to have a huge cabinet house,  in all my years of searching, I haven't found anything that would work at a price I was willing to pay.  But now I think I have.

A local raveler was looking to get rid of a small cabinet leftover from a bathroom renovation.  See that wee bottom shelf?  Garden.  Inside there is plenty of space for some wee rooms, a living room, a dining room, maybe a bedroom. Might be space for an attic too, if I had another shelf. It won't be huge and grand, but it will be a wee slice of miniature.  I just have to convince Mr. Needles to put some glass in the center of the door panels.

The cabinet inspired me and has had me thinking small lately . To that end, new knitting needles arrived yesterday.

Let's give it a little context.

The yarn in the picture is Misti Alpaca Laceweight.  The big needle is a 1.5 mm Addi Turbo. The middle needle is a .75mm needle or an 6/0 in US sizing and the wee one is a .5mm or 8/0 US.  I have not lost it completely, though.  As evidence, I submit that there are 3 sizes of needles available for order that are smaller. I'm not sure I could even see a .25 mm needle.

The two wee tiny needles are from Althea Crome, the hands behind the tiny sweater from the film Coraline.  Check out the things she has on her website, Bugknits.com.  Needles, patterns, and a gallery of itty bitty treasure.

I'm contemplating knitting wee soft treasures for in my rooms.  A wee kitchen has to have dishcloths and tablecloths.  A wee living room needs curtains and a blanket to cozy up under tossed across the sofa, a bedroom needs wee garments hanging at the ready and some socks under the bed.  And garden rooms need wee blooms and greenery and quite possibly cats and chickens too.

Right now, I have two sweaters for large men on the go.  I have another blanket on the go too.  All big stuff.     Contemplating itty bitty is the perfect antidote.

Thinking about it

It has been quite some time since I finished the knitting on the Lichen Vest for Mr. Needles. July 6 according to Ravelry.  And ever since then, as is my wont to do, I have been thinking on it.

This vest needed a zipper.  It just had to be that way for it to be worn.  If he doesn't like how it looks, it will never be worn and my beautiful knitting would have been wasted.

I had seen the tutorial by Eunny Jang about making the zipper a knittable thing, but once it was knittable, just how do you put it into your garment?

If no ribbings were knit, its an easier thing, but I already had my front bands and collars.  My steeks were all stucked (Does steek have a past tense?) There wasn't any going back.  How do I get that nifty thing to work for me.  

I wanted to put the zipper right at the edge and all I could see was trouble.  So I thought on it.  And thought some more.  

While doing my chores today, I knocked the stack of finished but not blocked projects down.  I did that several times through the day and finally moved the stack to my study.  The strings sticking everywhere irked me. They irked me so much that I started to weave the ends in on Folklore.  I do not look a gift horse in the mouth.  Ends it was.  All the ends on all the projects that were on the stack of things needing blocking are now woven hidden and tucked. All the buttons are sewed on too.  And it was only 4 o'clock.

So I got daring and stopped thinking.  This happened.

   I marked the zipper to my gauge as shown in the video.  Then I started installing it.  I caught one stitch right at the edge, pulling a single strand of yarn from the front through to the back side, where 

I caught the loops on a needle.  

And here, if you look closely you can see the right side, the side without loops, the side with just a single strand of yarn laying tight and hiding along the last row of corrugated ribbing.  If you look carefully, you can see that most stitches are crossed by that single strand.  You can also see that every few stitches, I skipped one.  No one but you and me will ever notice that.

Once I was done getting loops set, I started knitting the live stitches held on the needle at the back side of the work.  

I knit enough rows to hide the steek stitches and then sewed it down on the backs of the picked up stitches for the corrugated ribbing.  

You can hardly see any sewing at all, front or backside.  It turned out so incredibly well. 

I still have one side of the zipper to do and the requisite facing for the steek and then a bit of facing on the collar and this one will be done and finished crisp and clean and neat.  

The perfect warm sweater for  crisp fall days outdoors.  Perfect for deep cold winter.  Just right. 

I am content.

Planning to Play

I had a pretty post all planned out.  I was going to put these

into these.  

Which looks pretty much like nothing.    

The little tubes are a set of spice containers, made to look like test tubes along with a little stainless steel stand.  

Clear tubes are not the best way to store spices. The contents go stale too fast.  Proof was on dumping the spices out.  Only garlic and cinnamon smelled like anything at all. And the garlic smelled really really bad.

I saw the little sets just after Christmas and knew they would be right for beads. For 9 bucks each, a bargain. I washed out the tubes and thought I could finish up today.  No go. 

The tubes are still damp inside.  I shall have to impress you with my bead storage savvy later.     

Riddle Me This

What starts like this,

and ends like this?

This!

MINE!

I'm thrilled to finally have them.  I had knit with a pair of tips from my bosses set (given to her as a promotional item during a business trip to Seattle) and I fell in love.  That was April and they were due to be released in mid May. It is now November.

Skacel, the makers of Addi Turbos spent the time between, working on their brass lace tip formula.  They tried all sorts of things, and could not get rid of the coating issue with the brass.  Sense finally reigned and they have issued them in nickel, good old rock solid, just like the regular tips nickel.  

And contrary to earlier reports from the reps, all the tips and cables are completely interchangeable.  There are some cables in this set, the very short ones, that can really only be used with short tips for circular knitting, but they are all completely interchangeable.  

The regular tips have been a huge hit with any one who has invested in a set and I anticipate that these will be too.

I love these stubby little tips.  I always used to worry about needles that were too short. I now think that if all I had for implements were forks, I would find a way to knit with them. If these were forks, they would be the finest platinum forks from the greatest makers of utensils.  And these are so not forks.

Nope.  These are Cadillacs.  They are Rolls Royces.  

Addi Turbo Lace tips. Ain't life grand?

And before I forget, a Happy Thanksgiving to all my American visitors! 

Almost a Sweater

One sleeve done.  A realistic estimate.  BUT, I also managed to get the hem of the sweater done.  So even the wild far out wing and a prayer dream I had was not that far out.  

If you ever need an emergency sweater and you have 3 days of sound knitting (by the time I complete this, it will be about 16 hours) to do it in, think Liesl.

The new camera is just fine. It will take a little time to get used to its features, but so far so good.  And it has a macro setting!  I always wanted a macro setting.   

How I was goin g to take photos

It is completely possible that you won't see this sweater till it is done.  

My camera is misbehaving.  The on off switch is misbehaving.  I can view photos but not take them.  Sigh.  This might mean that I need a new camera.  Which really is ridiculous.  Sigh.  My adventures today will mean a new camera.   

The sweater I am currently knitting (one of two) is a Liesl .  I have knit this once before and just like that time, this sweater almost seems to knit itself.  This is a speedy knit.

In the pictures I would have taken for you, you would have seen a sweater almost at full length.  When the current ball of yarn is done, the body will go on holders and the sleeves will be knit, and once those are done, any and all yarn remaining will be used to knit the body of the sweater longer.  

The real world says there is time today to knit one sleeve today. The deep inner me that lives a rich knitting fantasy life thinks I will be able to knit both sleeves and finish the sweater to wear to work tomorrow.    

A slightly different afterthought heel

The beneficiary of all these sock heels is Mr. Needles, of course.  He is a fairly accepting sort, seldom complaining about much, so when he voices an opinion, I do try to pay attention.

Yesterday, when trying on socks, he mentioned that sometimes the rows of decreases along afterthought heels felt thick.  Since I cannot change the basic construction of the sock, without completely reknitting it, I thought a bit about what I could do.  I realized I can do a different sort of afterthought heel.

 I picked up stitches in the usual manner.  I added 3 stitches at the corners of each side as usual.  I knit one round to get properly set up.  And then I proceeded to knit an ordinary short row heel.

The only reason not to do this on a regular basis is that you have one heck of a long graft at the end.  After all these heels and toes, I can do a plain stockinette graft without any problem.  Above, you can see the heel completed, ready to graft.

You can also see that when I knit the heel, I paid attention to where I would end up.  I knit the heel on the sole side, so that when it was time for the graft, the graft would go where there was less wear, near the cuff.

 Half grafted.  Once the graft was half done, I finished the stitches, or rather, I tightened them up to see how I was doing.

 No problem.  Pleased so far.

Finished!  This looks like an ordinary garter stitch short row heel.  You would really have to look closely and even then, I doubt most knitters would guess.  

And most people, even knitters, do not look that closely at socks.  

In other exciting things, I am busy putting all my stash into Ravelry.   Till now I have avoided doing so. It just took too much time.  With the new tools (they have been there a while, I am just getting to it though) for adding a lot of stash, it goes nice and fast. 

I know most of my stash, but it would be nice to know for sure, do I have 8 balls or 10 balls. Most of the time I know, but there have been a couple incidents recently where, I have had to go digging to be sure. 

It would be nice to be able to add the yarn from stash when I add the project.  It would be nice to see what I have left after I knit something from some of it.  It is this last that will be the real time saver.  Down the road, I won't have to wonder, 'do I have enough for mittens or a hat of that nice red stuff?'  I can just look in my list.   

And if you have been listening to your insurance agent, special collections should have a good detailed list.  What is this lovely stash of mine, but a special collection?  

So to appease myself and my insurance guy, list, list list...

Tool Storage

With this weeks sweater looking a lot like it did on Monday, 

 I needed a little diversion.  So on my morning errand run, I looked for something I have needed for a while.

I needed a different nedles case.  Badly.  I had one, a small one that came with my interchangeables, but I quickly found I don't like to operate with some needles here, some needles there.  I put all my needles into one case. This stressed the case when I could close it, and with the addition of a crop* of 16 inch long circs, meant it wasn't ever going to close again.  I needed something else.

I wanted to stay with a binder.  I like the tidy way they close up, and I wanted to stay with pockets for the needles, pockets with a good sturdy closing.  I wanted to re-use the interchangable pockets.  The little pages with two and three slots work so well for the tips. 

With all the kids school things out, fall going back to school time is the time to look for alternative ways of storing things.    I came away with a binder case with nifty handles for 20 bucks.  

 It came with organizer pages for people going back to school.   Scrap paper!  I left a little in it for those on the road occasions where a little paper can't hurt.

But then I needed to come up with a good way to store the non interchangeable needles.  What on earth was cheap and had a good closure?  Ziplocs!

But Ziplocs don't come in nice tidy sizes, and they are not going to take a lot of wear and tear when you put holes through the ends for a three ring binder.  I tried to layer up the considerable part of the bag that I would not need, but it was messy and took up a lot of space in the rings of the binder.  

I used a heavy duty double zipper freezer bag, the 26.8 x 27.3 size.  (a fantastic size for project and yarn bags)  I cut off 4 inches from the bottom of the bag, leaving a really nice page size.  Fits perfectly into the binder.  Then, to keep it all together, I closed the end off with a flexible clear packing tape. Once that was done, I rooted around till I found a nice piece of card stock.  I cut a narrow strip for reinforcment and popped it into the bag, punched holes through bag and reinforcing cardboard, and voila, good sturdy pockets, made for very little cost.

I made one pocket for each of my most commonly used sizes. All the needles lengths could go in one bag.  I used one for the really small needles, and one for needles above 6 millimeters.  

It fits them all and still closes!  Now when I want to take the whole case along, I can, knowing that they will stay tidy and safe in one place.

We are off this weekend for the grand family camp out.  My mom, dad, sisters and maybe even my brother and various and assorted kids will all be there.  But mostly, this weekend is a ' buffalo tea' weekend without the buffalo.  I'm still not strong enough for buffalo!

*gratuitous farming reference alert.

Preparing for Gansey Class

I'm getting ready for another Gansey Class today. We are going to make an adult version this time, and because one of the ladies took the baby class, I want to find more unusual stuff, not just about Ganseys, but about the history of sweaters.

Going through my bookshelves, I came across my reprint copy of the 1901 T.Eaton Co. Catalogue. I completely forgot about this book while getting ready for the Baby Gansey Class. I wondered what the average turn of the century Canadian would have been buying in sweaters and yarns.

I investigated. Which is of course why this post is rather late. I spent several cups of coffee poring over its interesting pages.

I checked out the price of yarn, which ranged from 75 cents to $1.15 a pound for fingering weight yarn, and for the lone listing as worsted knitting yarn, (extra strong and durable) for 50 cents a pound. Names familiar to Canadian and British yarnies such as Baldwins, and Beehive appear, but Eaton's had its own yarn, branded as Eaton's Scotch. Though priced by the pound they seem to be sold as one ounce skeins.

There is a selection of things familiar to lace knitter's (if you have Victorian lace or are interested in old pattern books) noted as Berlin Wools. These are much finer, and several are noted as floss or have notations of good used for the type of yarn. Vest wool, a silk and woolen blend for edging garments. The price for these is harder to figure. Many are listed only as sold by skein. Two, Wyvern and Lady Betty, are sold by skein and pound. My guess is that skeins were an ounce here as well.

Knitting and crochet cottons sold for 5 cents a ball. How much is on a ball, I cannot say, though two brands refer to a hundred yards for the much more expensive 12 cents. The familiar names Coats and Anchor show up.

Crochet hooks were 2 for 5 cents and came in lengths up to 10 inches long. Knitting needles of steel came for the bargain price of 3 cents for a complete set (though it doesn't say what was a set), and better quality bone and rubber needles were 10 cents a pair. Wood needles, 5 cents a pair.

We are far from these prices, and yet, if you been around yarn for a while, the names are comforting and familiar.

Interesting reading, but there is so much more. I'm going to stop a little longer here, contemplating the mysteries of Braids and gimps and pages of ribbons before moving on with my day. Not really the history of sweaters, but hey, a little side trip is good for the soul.

Evolution or Revolution?

Notice anything different in this picture?

Since I began knitting socks, I have avoided using short needles. I was always afraid of stitches falling off. My fear was about at the same level as my fear of running out of yarn, which as my stash shows, is just a little ridiculous. Yarn to the point of ridiculous. (I'm working on it. Its like legumes, only softer.)

As you can see, I am using two sets of short needles here. Not the really short 4 inch ones, but a nice comfortable 6 inch needle.

I'm trying these because winter is coming, and so are longer sleeves. The 8 inch needles keep jabbing into my sleeves. I don't want to have to push up my sleeves all the time, and I really don't want to have to shorten the sleeves of every warm thing I own.

It occurred to me one chilly day back in August, how much I was beginning to dislike the longer needles. Unbidden, unlooked for, unasked, in popped the thought, I should try shorter needles.

I'm trying out bamboo needles too. While the bamboo are OK, and I am not breaking them with my Vulcan death grip, as I expected, the yarn just does not move as easily over the needles as they do on the other short set. Not my first choice.

Tools are such an individual preference. The way you hold your hands, micro movements you have developed, the way you like the knitting to move across the needles, warmth or coolness of the needle in your hand and sometimes even commitment to the environment, can factor in, to make a needle you love versus a needle you are so so about. It's kind of nice that we have all these options.

While I'm enjoying my foray to shortie needles, I no longer have to have shorties in every size. When I start a pair of socks, I just grab 5 needles that look about the same and go. I get out the gauge only when I blog about it. This morning while checking over the needles in the socks on the go, I realized something. All the pairs I routinely pick up to knit are on 2.5 mm needles. The socks from the bottom of the knitting bag, are on 2.25 and 2.0 mm needles. It seems my hands know what I like even as my brain tries to use different sizes for different results.

I'm a 2.5 mm needles for sock sort of person, and now I also am a short needles sort of sock person. Just another step in the evolution of a knitter.

Our grandmothers and great grandmothers, and anyone who ever took garments straight from sheep to shoulder deserves and awful lot of respect. If my grandma was still around, heck if my Auntie Lorraine was still around, I would kiss their feet to say thank you for letting me sleep under the wool quilt batts they made from fleeces from the farm down the road.

Its a big job and we modern lazy bones owe homage to their skill, their tenacity and their hard work for doing all this without running water, and septic systems.

The fleece washing went well. It was incredibly dirty stuff. I picked it over and put it in a big tub of water for a good soak.

Then I washed it using the hot water method. I put it in a pan with some Dawn and heated the water till the water was to hot to put my hands into. Then I rinsed it several times in clean very very hot water.

When it came out from the rinsing, it was so clean it was hard to believe that it was the same fibre that went into the soak. Its drying now upstairs though my intent was to dry it in the sun. the sun is not cooperating today. I'm going to put it in the same room with a small dehumidifier unit we have, to dry it fast. Using the dehumidifier, I expect it to be dry before days end.

There still is a lot of vegetable matter in it, and though some may come out when carding and combing, I think I might wash it again first. There is just is so much vegetable matter in there. Perhaps it is a combination of newbie sheep farmer (the fibre comes from a start up flock) and newbie fleece person, both not quite knowing what the heck we are doing, but game enough to try anything. and then again, it is possible that sheep fleeces are just really really dirty things.

I have a deep sense of satisfaction out of this. When I pulled the fibre out of the last rinse, gently squeeze out most of the water, and then lay it out to dry, I could not help it. I felt pretty darn good about my work. It nice seeing such a profound change from what went in at the start. I'd say it was enjoyable, but this was only the first half bag. The last half of bag one is waiting for me out back, after soaking over night. Well see if I still think it is enjoyable after I get the other three bags done.

The current plan is to do 2 bags the hot wash method, and 2 bags the cold wash method that is so much discussed on Ravelry and see which is more effective and which produces something I'd like to spin.

And somewhere in here over the next few days, I have to talk Mr. Needles into making me a comb with which to comb out the fibre. He doesn't know this yet (unless he reads my blog today) but he is quite skilled in finding solutions to the strange requests he gets from me. The how to is right here in case anyone else is interested and has, like me, an extremely talented handy person around.

Come Monday, I hope to have just a little more done and maybe a set of combs in hand. We'll see. It never hurts to dream.

Needles

I think all knitters these days are on a search for good needles. My own experience has shown it is a search of epic proportions, and with the variety of needles out there, it is a herculean task to find the perfect needles, much less the perfect needles for every job.

I started many years ago with a complete set of old Aero straight plastic needles. These are the spawn of the devil, and should be consigned to the depths of hell in my opinion. I know Aero made better needles, I have some, but this set from the late 70's has tips that are short and rounded rather than having anything like a long straight slope on the tip. The newer needles from Aero are pretty good, much improved tips that spawn of hell plastic set.

Then there are the old needles I have in slightly smaller sizes, whose maker I don't know. Some are good. Some have that darned rounded tip. The good tipped ones are still in use.

These were from the dark time (the dark and bad needle time) before I even really knit.

When I really started to knit, I bought a few Susan Bates straights. Good quality needles, easy to find, and available widely in a shorter than average needle. At the time, not so very long ago, I thought this would be all I needed.

Along came my Truly Tasha's Shawl. It needed something more than I had in needles. I picked up my first set of Addi Turbos for it. I liked them. A lot. I hoped to get by with only a small investment, buying only really long cables, figuring that I could always manage to work with a longer than needed cables, but too short and you are plumb out of luck. This has pretty much been the case, except that these Turbos are now my most used needles, and I have plumb run out of patience playing with the long cables. I have a good 'collection' of these in my most used sizes, and many lengths.

After you pick up a few Turbos, you have to try a few lace tips from the Turbo people. You discover that they have a tip you really like for certain kinds of projects. Soon enough I amassed a fair complement of needles with these tips too. I am trying really hard to avoid total duplicates, but there are some times where the lace tip won't do and some times where the regular tip won't do. You know?

And then when a crisis struck, and the size I needed was not available at the store in the Turbo line, I picked up a couple of Denise individual needles. They are great needles and surely have their place, but the best thing about these is the cables. Nothing like these cables for trying projects on. You just pop the ends on the big cable, and you can securely try on your sweater no matter no matter how much mangling and stretching you do. Decent tips, great cables, and the nicest of all the connection systems, and more. They are probably the only needles that will never be taken from you on a plane. (Though I am sure it has happened, these cannot be seen in a scanning device.)

My son and daughter in law gave me a set of needles that have tips that light up, a bouquet of needles really (she wraps things in the most creative way). These are not like the old plastic at all and I really like the way the yarns slips along them. I hope to use them for camping, to let me knit a little longer in the light of the campfire or on dark nights on the back deck while looking at stars. I can even see them being used to knit black yarns, if I ever am so bold and lunatic as to knit black yarn again.

I have some wooden straights from a couple of different makers. You just can't beat Nova Scotia's River John's needles for some yarns, some projects and if you like a little more cling to a needles than you get with steel.

So if someone can explain to me why yesterday in the mail I took ownership of two sets of tips in my most 'needed' (wondering how I can justify 'need') sizes and 3 sets of different cable lengths from Knit Picks, I'll never know. Furthermore, if someone can stop me from thinking that I could use the other two lengths of cables, and a few more tips in the smaller range of sizes, and maybe a pack to put it all in too, I'll be forever grateful.

Don't get me started on my 'need' for the Addi Click set, which I have seen (its the most beautiful thing) and heard very good things about, but which is extremely short supply here in Canada. Don't even make me think about Hiya Hiya needles which some of my knitting friends feel quite strongly about. Don't even make me wonder about wood tips, or bamboo circulars. Don't even start on how I dream of owning just a few Signature Needles, the short ones, just for scarves and nothing else.

I'm not even going to go into double pointed needles, because that is a whole other blog post.

Honestly all this selection exhausts me. I can't make up my mind which I like 'best'. I'm not even sure there is a best. Some of my personal journey through the land of tools is because I sell needles. I like to know that I can make an informed suggestion to help people find a needles they will enjoy.

There just aren't any bad needles on the market anymore. I really think it is a case of best for each kind of project, for each style of knitter, for each individual set of hands.

Meanwhile back in my study, I think it is fair to say I am collecting needles as much as I collect yarn.

Worst Jobs in History

One of the programs I try to catch whenever it airs is Worst Jobs in History airing on the History Channel. Host Tony Robinson learns and teaches us about worst jobs through the ages.

I get a big kick out of Tony Robinson and his reaction to some of these jobs. He can't hide his revulsion to some of the things he is doing and he has an imitable way with words. That is what caught my ear this morning. His way with words.

This morning they were talking about Elizabethan jobs. They discussed being a pin maker, and showed how those fanciful Elizabethan ruffs were held together by a myriad of straight pins. (The ancient Mycenaean version of the safety pin had long been forgotten by Europe.) He talked about being an actor who played female roles in Elizabethan times (it was illegal for a female to act on stage). And they showed how a woad dyer dyed with woad.

What caught my ear was Tony's description of woad dying being incredibly smelly. He said (loosely quoted) it smelled like rotten cabbages and fermenting sewage and noted that there were laws in place to make dyeing happen outside the city.

It occurred to me this morning just how much I learn from this show about dyeing and fulling and how to handle wool. Without even thinking about it, I could picture the episode he featured the purple makers, and the absolutely unforgettable episode he demonstrated fulling. I know there are more bits and pieces of dyers lore.

If you are looking for a fun show, and wouldn't mind the side benefit of learning some things about our fibery world, look for 'Worst Jobs in History' For more of the inimitable Tony Robinson, look for 'Tony's Law', a look at the evolution of law through 2000 years of British history.

This guy makes the dullest stuff interesting.

PS. The new bed is lovely. So lovely that all night I kept waking up thinking, 'man this is nice.' I'll sleep better tonite.

Christmas found

The relationship between a good yarn store and its customers has been likened to the relationship between a bartender and his customers. Yarn stores are a place where we discuss dreams and possibilities. We listen, we advise where we can, we open people to new possibilities, and we act as mother confessors for things like 'I knit my ssk's as a knit 2 together through the back loop and do you think that is OK?' We try to make our customers walk away happier than when they came in. We want them to knit happy and wear happy too. It is a goal that gives back.

We have had a lot of customers bring in cookies for the staff. And chocolates. Did I mention chocolates? We have had customers bring in chocolates so fine that even the most ardent chocolate hater (do these people exist or is this an urban myth?) would have been compelled to try the truffles. We received trays of home made cookies so divine that a whole new definition for chocolate chip cookie is required, and a whole new genre of adjectives is needed to discuss shortbread.

And then there were things so lovely I cried. I did.

Working in the yarn store is very special to me. It came to me when I was at the darkest period in my life. I had lost my sense of the worth of my abilities, lost confidence in my skills. I stopped imaging that life could be different. I stopped believing. There were no dreams of a better way to be. There was no hope. I was very very close to just giving up. I don't fully understand what happened to me, but the bottom line is that, in every way that mattered, in every facet of life, I lost me.

Knitting helped me find me. Working at the yarn store has helped me, find me and customers have helped me, find me.

When I try to help people find a yarn, a craft, a piece of string, what I hope I am helping them find is some of what I find in knitting, and in yarn. I hope that they find creativity, simplicity, a tie to the old, a passion for the new, and sometimes, just one tiny place in the world mistakes can be taken apart and made right. I hope that they experience for just a wee moment a tiny bit of the joy I find there. I hope I help people find comfort, consolation and joy as result of picking up one or two sticks and some string.

My reward is when people walk out of the store happy. When they feel a sense of the adventure they can find in knitting, my every wish is met and I go home feeling very very good. My satisfaction is a customers satisfaction.

I did not expect my joy in sharing knitting and socks to give back to me the way that it has.I have two customers who are exploring socks. I think exploring socks is one of the most interesting things and I guess my enthusiasm for it touched them. They made me this absolutely stunning needle case in return for my efforts.

I'm all moved in now, my needles have a new home. All of them fit. One side is for circulars. The needles tuck neatly away in little pockets, that are deep enough, none of them will ever go missing, There is room for plenty of tall straights including the wee bit taller River John needles I enjoy. There is room for my entire collection of double pointed needles, plus some little wee ribbon bits that will work to hold stitch holders and stitch markers and whatever notions won't fit into the little pouch.

It is beautiful and I will treasure it for the rest of my days.

At Christmas, there are no more giving people than knitters, and I am honoured, proud and utterly bowled over to be counted among them.

Thank you and many blessings to all the knitters, customers and yarn store owners who have helped me find my way.

These very special needle cases are going to be featured at River City Yarns for the next while. If you want a needle case that does it all, give the store a call.

Seriously fine tools.

Many years ago, back when I was determined to knit, back when I envisioned a life of clothing myself in lovely sweaters, I optimistically bought a complete set of plastic needles in a padded plastic case. The 'set' was the best on the market at the time, the most cool knitting thing that knitters were using.

Over the years, these needles were used only occasionally, and seldom for knitting. I picked up the needles to unlock bathroom doors that 2 year olds had locked on themselves and one time I made scarves for each of my kids. I'm quite certain that I never used them enough to account for the 40 dollars I paid for them.

Time passed and one day I finally figured out knitting and took out the awful plastic set of needles. Within the first 4 rows, I realized there had to be something better than these. I was right. First things first, I bought a few decent straight metal needles. Then I picked up various and sundry sets of dpns because I had quickly moved on to making socks and loved it.

I first began this current crop of hats on some of those dpns, but I found for an adult male head, my 4 mm dpns were a too short for my comfort. I moved to one of my 3 really long sets of 4 mm circular Turbos. (??? How did that happen?)

In general terms, starting my circular needle set with long cables, has stood me in fairly good stead, but I have to tell you, there are times, as I knit on this first hat, that the long long cables were driving me batty. Dragging that darn cable around each time, pulling it through, was taking every bit of the fun out of knitting and turning it into work to avoid.

I decided to invest in a proper set of short circulars. If I plan to get all this holiday knitting done, I need something that is going to help me get done, not hinder me. I know I will get my money's worth out of a set of two same length needles even though part of me says I could have done it with one 32 inch and one 24 inch. I can see all kinds of knitting where the benefit of two needles would be immediate. No needles change in the middle of a pattern in stranded colourwork for one. The burning question is do I buy many individual needles or do I wait for the set?

If knitting is a symphony, then a Turbo is a Stradivarius. If the Turbo click sets live up to their advance billing and the quality of their other needles, they would be the Stradivarius that all the really famous violinists want, the single most perfect instrument that they can find.

The idea of a set still appeals. Wouldn't it be lovely to just sit there and be able to make the right size and length? Wouldn't it be organized? Wouldn't it be a dream come true? Like all dreams, the reality sometimes has a little more to consider.

The turbo click set is pricey. Do I spend one big chunk of money or should I buy the individual needles a couple at a time? The jury is out right now, since the sets are still not delivered to the distributor and I could not access them even if I wanted to.

I'll have to make the decision soon enough and in a way it is comforting to have the time to really think about the options.

Defining moments

I've always had a very strong definition of and a very grounded belief in who and what I am. There have only been two times where that sense of identity has been shaken, the first when I was just out of high school, and then more recently, as I was struggling to leave a job with an employer who was and is important to my family. Both of these crisis of faith have led me to good things. The first time it was to find the man I would marry and have children with, and this second to bring me back to work, personally and professionally, that I really love. I play with strings. I play with needles. It is who I am without question. These things have accompanied all the days of my life.

These days, should you happen to wander into my study, you would be confronted by beer can corner, between two book cases, tucked right beside the treadmill, all along the wall. I was showing pictures taken inside my study to someone the other day, and they asked what those things were in the background. (They used a very odd tone of voice. I think they were worried) The universe shifted ever so slightly, and I had a defining moment.

It seems I have a collection of beer bags. It is starting to be impressive in its own right.

Hello, my name is Needles. I play with strings and needles, I read, I collect cheap blue and white china, and free beer bags.

Beer bags are where my two personal crisis of faith have collided. Mr. Needles (who drinks the occasional beer) the pleasant result from crisis one, and a reinvigorated joy of yarn from crisis two. The universe is unfolding as it should.

The universe has a strange sense of humour.

Matching yarn to needles

The last while at knitting group some of our conversation was about what size needles do we use for socks. Group knitters use needles between size 2.5 mm to a size 2 mm for the average sock yarn. They seem to knit to a specific gauge.

Here are some of the sock yarns that I have on my needles right now. Left to right, we'll call them 1 to 4.At first glance they look too close in size to tell apart, but the 4 pictured yarns, felt extremely different as they ran through my hands. Kroy sock yarn is fat and fluffy, Trekking is fine and strong, Fixation is stretchy, and the Fabel feels...well like really good sock yarn (I can't seem to get past its long colour changes, and brilliant shades for descriptions).

Kroy sock yarn (4), is too tight on 2.5 mm needles. The yarn loses all its squooshy goodness, and what the heck good is a sock without squooshy goodness? Kroy, I work on 3 mm needles.

Cascade Fixation (2) is labeled with the very unclear notation of '4,5'. I tried a few different sizes and used what felt right, a 3.75 mm needles (a US 5 it seems). That produced the best feeling fabric.

The Fabel socks (3), are being worked on 2.25 mm needles, and the most recent acquisition, some Trekking XXL (1) (I love the orange in this) is being worked on 2 mm needles, because it was what I could find fast for use in last weeks sock class.

I use this variety of needles because it feels right. Other people may stick more closely to one size because that is what feels right to them and by working to the same gauge, they don't even have to think about when to start and stop increasing or decreasing. Their socks will always be the same size in a basic fingering weight yarn. Everyone says smaller needles are better, that small needles produce a tougher wearing, sturdier sock. This is probably true and a wise knitter heeds her friends.

As an unwise knitter, I operate to a different tune. Smaller might be better, but if I am going to wear handmade socks, I really am going to insist on some squooshy factor in them.

I figure when I am as skilled as these Knitters are, I will probably know what size gauge my socks are in. I will probably care how tight the feet are worked, and will always knit for that tightness. I'm still in love with the very idea of me trying to knit. This probably is not a good way to do it. I probably should put on a more knitterly sort of glasses to help me see things clearly before I massacre any more sock yarn.

Till then, laying in a stock of darning needles might be a very good idea.

What you get from sock class

I sat in on a toe up sock class last night. Learned a bunch of new things. Met a very wise knitter. Or 3.

I'm still mired in secret projects. If these were not secret projects I would have taken a whole lot of photos, because there has been a lot to see. Along the way through these projects, I have learned so much.

On part one, I knit and re knit rows, I sweated and slaved. Every error took days, nay weeks to get past. Counting to 2 became the most painful thing in my days. And yet here I am, just a little farther into project, and I cannot believe what I am doing.

I have come to know the flow of the pattern well enough that I am following along not needing to read the pattern a lot. I know how many stitches there are to get to any point and more often than not, they are being counted and tracked as I work through the stitch rows. Yesterday afternoon, I suddenly realized that where I should have 3 plain stockinette stitches there were 4. I also realized that the last section of the set was one stitch short. The row below that had one too many and one too few. The row below that, had one too many and one too few. It was not looking good. I'm working with a doubled strand of very fine black laceweight yarn that is a pleasure to work with but is in league with the devil should you try to tink back or rip. I did think about drinking, but I was still planning to go out to that sock class, so I went out to sit in the sun and contemplate (I had a snooze instead. It was lovely).

Off to class. The class instructor said knitting should make us feel good. If we don't care for or have difficulty doing a thing one way, it really doesn't matter, there are other ways to do that same thing that will make knitting feel good. She said knitting should be a place away from worrying about doing it right and should be about doing what works for us.

This morning I sat down with a good stiff coffee, knowing I had to figure it out. I picked up the needles and found the error. 8 rows below. I was not keen to try tinking 8 full rows, so I decided to see if I could just reknit the bad part. I don't mind trying new things, and I had seen several samples of how to repair something several rows below. There are a number of good photo tutorials on the net. Would this work for me? I decided not to worry about it, and just give it a try. The very worst that could happens was that I would end up carefully tinking the full rows.

I put point protectors on the needles with the unaffected stitches, found another set of needles of same size to work with and the gently and slowly began to unravel 5 stitches mid pattern repeat, down the 8 bad rows.

It was traumatic. I closed my eyes when I was done and took a deep breath, and with the aid of the right sized dpns, a very short time later, about 15 minutes, I was back up and knitting even. You can't even tell there was a problem and my counts are correct.

Before my class last night, I spent a couple hours worrying about what was I going to do. How was I going to be able to save the yarn? This morning after listening to the instructor, I left the worry behind and found a way that worked.

I intended to learn about some new ways to start toe up socks. I intended to learn a different toe shaping. I did learn those things but I took home much more.

The thing that made the difference was what the teacher reminded me of. I let go the worry and let the knitting speak. Letting the worry go was magic. Letting go of the worry let me find a way that worked. You never know what small things other knitters will say that will make good things happen. I only know the other knitters always bring magic.

Even if you are a top notch knitter, take a class.

Finishing

Saturday was supposed to be the Edmonton Ravelers field trip. Morning brought a heavy snowfall that did not let up on this side of the city till well after 1:00 (the meeting time) and the shop is about 75 minutes away. I’d have arrived just when everyone else was heading away. I really hated to miss it, but it sounds like some of the ravelers are going to do it next Saturday instead. One of them will be me.

While I sat and waited to see what the weather would do I picked everything in my work project arsenal. Each sock was moved just a little farther down the heel. Once the weather had made my decision, I picked up my work bag. The work bag was crocheted in early February and all it was waiting for was the lining. It seemed like a good idea for something just a little different to work on.

Because I ended up sewing much of it by hand, I had the chance to watch Bette Davis crochet in the movie "The Letter" based on a Somerset Maugham play of the same name.

If you get the chance to see this classic film, pay close attention to crochet. Crochet plays a very big role in this movie and I think Ms. Davis must have at least known the basics. Even though a lot of screen time was given to her crocheting, there was only one scene where the work was not hidden by her hands, and she may have actually worked a stitch. The rest was close. It was just a little surreal to watch.

By the time the movie was done, the work bag was complete. The first lining attempt had the many pockets I was wanting, but it had a fatal design flaw (or is that designer flaw?). When that idea didn't work out and just as I started the second try at the lining, the sewing machine quit working (which led directly to the hand work). This second go at lining, since it ended up hand stitched, was much simpler in its execution. The straps were lined to give the stretchy crochet fabric some backup in the heavy lifting department. You can see just a hint of that above.There are two deep sections, one with a large booklet and document pocket, and a huge cavity for knitting projects and the other, a single large spacious pocket for purse things.

I may go back and put in a couple of smaller pockets on the purse side so things like my cell and my keys don't get lost among the jumble that usually is at the bottom of my purse. The plan was to crochet a pocket for them on the outside of the bag, but now I am not so sure. I'm going to use it for a couple days and see what feels right. I'm also going to have to come up with something to keep it dry when we camp.

Moving out of the old work bag was a little sad. It is still sitting by my chair because I just don't have the heart yet to toss it out. It looks forlorn. The handles are torn through and the corners on the bottom are in tatters. Its only good working part is the zipper and I want to get that out of her before I send her off on the long good bye.

Fare the well faithful little workbag.