Saturday, June 09, 2007

Correction to my problems with needles

Awhile back, I wrote a post about my Hogwart's Swap Socks, and how I was doing with the needles. Does "variable pointyness" come to mind? well, I was making unfriendly remarks about Boye needles, because some of the needles I was using worked better than others. I'm here to apologize today, (please don't sue me! ;) ) because I discovered that I was incorrect. (in error, mistaken, flat-out WRONG)

The needles are not variable pointynessed, instead, I have needles of two different sizes in my sock. Eek! I realized this when I came to the toe of the first sock, and had all the stitches on two needles in preparation for kitchernering (sic. "grafting"). I looked at the two I wasn't using, and my goodness, they look to be slightly different sizes! Imagine that! They were the same color, and surely I measured them before I started...not! I found my guage again, and measured all of them. I'm using two size 0's, and two size 1's. Ooops.

I could freak out over this, and worry "what do I do?!?!" but instead of starting all over, or trying to decide which size I should use for the second sock, I just used the same needles again. And I'm not worrying about it. Do you know why? First, because I tried on the first sock, and it should fit my swapee just fine. It's a little long, and a little loose on me, which is just perfect. And second, because I was reading in one of Elizabeth Zimmerman's books, that she had experimented with using one out of four needles being a different size, and it did not make any difference to her gauge. In fact, she once used four different sizes, and the finished product looked fine. Thank Goodness!

This little digression, is part of what I was thinking at midnight last night, when I was working on the heel flap of my Hogwart's sock. I shouldn't be awake that late, but you know how when you're working on a project, and you think "just one more row, and then I'll stop"? And then another, and another row? until you come to the end? It was something like that...and a really good book, too. I kept knitting until I finished the heel flap; next up, turning the heel, and doing the gusset. After that, the foot of the sock goes much faster than the cuff, probably because only half of the row is in the pattern stitch, and the other half is straight stockinette.

1 comment:

Laura said...

ha! Too funny that you were using different sizes all along and didn't know!! They DO have a different degree of pointiness!! I just recently read the same thing by EZ, which made me realize I must be smarter than I thought because I have "adopted" needles from a different size when I was one or two short while knitting a hat on six DPNS. Thank goodness it doesn't bring the world to a screeching halt, huh? :)

Have fun with the Hogwarts Sock Swap - I think I know who my pal knitting for me is!! (but don't tell anyone! hehe)