Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Nothing to see here...

I remember once reading a forum thread about the sort of things people like / do not like to see on knitting blogs where someone had commented that they didn't like blogs where only finished blocked projects were shown and there was no detail on things that had happened along the way, no trial and errors, mistakes, minor panics or progress reports. Well, whoever you were, this post is for you.

Before I start with any of my new yarn, I want to finish the shawl from VLT that's been on the needles for a while now, so on Sunday I managed to drag myself away from Ravelry and the computer and finished off the main body section with it's pretty picot cast off.

Yesterday, I rummaged around for some 3.5mm dpns to knit on the border. Do I have any 3.5mm dpns? no, I do not. Bit of a shame that I didn't realise this before spending the whole day on Friday in and around knitting shops, but hey ho. I have some 3.75mm dpns, so I thought I'd try with them as after all, there isn't much difference between 3.5mm and 3.75mm diameter needles is there.... well, actually, once I'd thought about it a bit more carefully, there is. There is a 0.8mm difference in circumference between these two sizes, which is over 20%. This is going to add up, and yes, 20 rows later this experiment was frogged as the lace pattern was looking decidedly floppier than it ought. My 3.5mm Addi lace needles are a little on the small size, so this difference will be even more. Ah well, the postal strikes are over, so my order for a selection of small dpns (and some sock yarn that was on sale) has been duly placed with Get Knitted.

While I wait for my needles, I thought I'd make a start on Devan for Lily-Rose's birthday. The pattern calls for 2.5mm and 3mm needles. Another look in the needle box turned up no 2.5mm straight needles other than dpns, which are too short. Could I use 2.75 and 3.25mm pairs instead? A tension swatch proved no. Then I remembered that in my knitting bag there are my 2.5mm circs for sock knitting. Perfect. I started with them. In the wrong colour. I went to bed.

6 comments:

Sarah Ditum said...

Even if you didn't accomplish any knitting, you did get a very good blog post out of a weekend of frustration. It all sounds awfully familiar...

Piglottie said...

Ouch! The joys and sadness of knitting eh? I've just bought a set of interchangeables for this reason as I'm sick of not having the right needle size.

Auntie Noo said...

I am so sorry, not for your frustration....... but for the fact that I'm laughing.. well just giggling really!!! I've been there and done that so many times. In the end I bought full sets of needles from EBay from Joycessupershop, not great quality, but always there to get you out of a crisis! (I've stopped laughing now, and am truly sorry for your bad luck)

Seahorse said...

Yeah, there's some sort of Sod's Law of knitting isn't there, that no matter how large and extravagant your stash, you won't have *quite* what you need for the project you most desperately want to work on!

TY for the chuckle though!

Linda said...

Oh, I know the story so well ... I hope it all works out right in the end.

florencemary said...

Eeermm, got a headache already. Going to comment on your stripey top shortly....