Archives for February 2003

Who’s got the button?

The time has come to think about buttons for Oregon. Here’s some from which to choose.

The top button is one of the set that Bonne Marie sent me for my birthday, the middle and the bottom buttons were from Lindesy-Brooke.

Which one do you like? Let me know . . .

So . . . Izzy finally came out from under the covers.

When I got home from work last night it had started snowing . . . hard. We got a fair amount overnight and I’m home today. I may upgrade my home PC to Windows XP today, so good luck to me!

Enough already! Izzy may never come out from under the covers!

It snowed all day yesterday – not much on the roads, but there was a good 2 inches of snow on my car in the afternoon that I had to clear off. I keep hearing conflicting reports of how much snow we’re getting. The predictions range from 6 – 12 inches by tomorrow morning. We’ll see. Right now there’s not much of anything going on, weatherwise — just flurries. But we’re supposed to get a significant amount tonight.

Yeah, we need more snow.

Oregon

Last night I managed a photo without screwing it up.

Ebony Needles

I was asked what brand of ebony needles I use. I’ve only ever seen two brands — Holz & Stein and Suzanne’s. I’ve got some of each brand and I like them both. But I gotta tell you — they can be hard to find. For some reason the size 3.25mm (US size 3) doesn’t seem available anywhere anymore. Glad I bought mine when I did. And I hope I don’t break them!

A number of retailers do carry them (if they have any in stock) but I bought mine from JKL Needles. No affiliation, just a very satisfied customer!

Happy Thursday everyone and stay warm!

It seems as though there may be more snow headed this way in the next day or so.

When Izzy heard the news she did this:

It was really really cold yesterday. And probably won’t get above freezing today. According to the Weather Channel, it’s snowing here now, but I don’t see any falling. Yet.

I’ve started the second Oregon sleeve, and even took a photo last night to show you. But when I loaded it into the ‘puter, I discovered I jiggled the camera and it wasn’t worth posting. So because of my ineptitude, you suffer.

It doesn’t seem right, does it?

But here’s a bonus. A guest photo, courtesy of my friend Geane!

Geane has been the Swatching Queen lately! On top is Alice Starmore’s Rosemarkie vest swatch using 2 ply Hebridean and a 2.5 mm needle. This design originally appeared in The Celtic Collection.

And the bottom swatch is Jade Starmore’s Lavoisier, using 3 ply Whin Hebridean and a 3.25 needle. Geane says this is too big and she’s going to try again with a 3mm needle.

Both kits bought from Virtualyarns.

And because today is Guest Day on WendyKnits, here’s a link courtesy of Lindsey-Brooke. Would anyone like to send me on the Interweave Press trip to Scandinavia? Please?

I finished my first Oregon sleeve. Yup.

And to make me even happier, I never had to resort to dpns. I did the cuff on a 12″ circular Addi Turbo. Uh huh.

Don’t get me wrong — I have nothing against dpns — they are my pick to pop when it comes to socks. But for two color corrugated ribbing, the circular is faster.

Years ago I had some 11″ long circular needles. I’m trying to remember the brand name — Boye, perhaps? They were lousy to work with. I don’t think I ever successfully used them. The needle part was too long and the cable too short.

The Addi Turbos are a completely different animal. A horse of a different color, as it were.

I don’t know if the needle bits are shorter or if they are just angled better, but I have no problems using the 12″ Addi Turbos.

Of course I’d be happier if they were ebony. I adore ebony needles. I have a 16″ ebony circular that I used for the sleeve about halfway down until it got too tight from the decreases. But I’m not holding my breath that a 12″ ebony circular will ever be manufactured. Still, a girl can dream, right?

And Speaking of Circular Needles . . .

There’s been some discussion lately about a technique called “magic loop,” wherein you can use a long circular needle to knit something with a relatively small circumference. Like a sock. The short explanation is that you cast on the number of stitches the pattern requires and in the middle pull out the extraneous cable of the circular needle.

If you want to learn how to do this, there’s apparently a booklet describing the technique. Do a Google search on magic loop knitting and you’ll find it.

Here’s my problem with this technique. I am very leery about all this manipulation of the circular needle’s cable. Don’t you think that this will weaken your needle and shorten its life? Maybe I’m particularly hard on my needles, but I’ve had to replace a couple of my more often used sizes of Addi Turbo curculars because the cable has parted company from the needle. I have a set of Inox circulars that are even worse. Won’t all the extra needle manipulation needed for the magic loop technique just add more wear and tear to the needle? Or is it just me?

Call me cautious, but I have needle separation anxiety.

The operation seems to have been a success! We performed a heart transplant on my poor ailing desktop computer.

Izzy was a big help.

So hopefully my computer is back among the living. So far, so good. But it’s nice to have the laptop available . . . .just in case!

Knitting Gift!

Look what I got in the mail on Friday:

A new knitting bag! This was a gift from one of my most faithful blog readers, Lindsey-Brooke. Thanks L-B!

A close-up of the logo:

Appropriate, no?

That reminds me . . . several knitting bloggers have posted photos of their “knitting toolboxes” so it’s about time I showed you mine:

This is a carrying case for “ZipZaps” and accessories — radio controlled cars. Ian gave me this for Christmas. Doesn’t it make a great knitting toolbox?

The case has two levels. The top:

And the bottom:

And best of all, it’s portable!

Oregon Update

Not a great deal of progress. It was kind of a crazy mixed-up weekend so I didn’t get a lot of knitting time in. But I am near the end of the first sleeve:

Hey, did y’all see that the Starmores have re-released Oregon and have it available in two colorways on the Virtualyarns website? My favorite of the two is the autumn colorway, but I like the version I’m knitting right now best.