Getting the Blues
A quick update:
The Leaf Lace Shawl is coming along, knitting is occurring at Casa Lambster.
I'm headed out for a two day workshop with Joan Schrouder, knitting goddess, so perhaps, maybe, later, more knitting will occur.
But I wanted to clarify, update, and express my chagrin: In this post, I mentioned how much I liked the tips of el cheapo brand of knitting needles (Susan Bates) over the much vaunted Addi Turbos. The Bates tips are *scoopy* (my word) rather the blunt and bulbous Addis (horrors, sacrilege).
I hereby retract (and in the process reveal my extraordinary lack of class). What I like is apparently the no-longer-made, even cheaper, all plastic one-piece version of Bates circular needle that I must have had since the last century. I don't know when they changed them. I didn't have the size I needed so I had to buy new ones for this shawl, and they are *not* all plastic, they are not the *scoopy* tips.
On the left, the scoopy old ones, on the right, bleah:
You can see the difference, right?
I have been struggling along with these blunt tips on slippery yarn (silk/merino), and wishing I could find the old El Cheapo plastic version. I will be searching: thrift shops, here I come. And, I will be closely examining needle tips, to see if there are some on the market now that have the *scoopiness* I seek.
On the weather front: yes, there has been snow:
This is very early morning, after about 6 inches.
The yurt is a good snow-shedder though, and just after dawn:
snow began to retreat. Being inside the yurt when the snow slides off is quite the experience: it sounds like the whole thing is falling in on your head. Startling, to say the least.
It has remained cold and crisp. The rain chain was ice most of the day, even after the snow was off the branches:
It made pretty splash patterns, frozen mid-drop.
And last, Mothers, don't let your children grow up to be snowboarders:
They'll just send you pictures like this, making you wish you could reach through your monitor and shake them sensible.
The Leaf Lace Shawl is coming along, knitting is occurring at Casa Lambster.
I'm headed out for a two day workshop with Joan Schrouder, knitting goddess, so perhaps, maybe, later, more knitting will occur.
But I wanted to clarify, update, and express my chagrin: In this post, I mentioned how much I liked the tips of el cheapo brand of knitting needles (Susan Bates) over the much vaunted Addi Turbos. The Bates tips are *scoopy* (my word) rather the blunt and bulbous Addis (horrors, sacrilege).
I hereby retract (and in the process reveal my extraordinary lack of class). What I like is apparently the no-longer-made, even cheaper, all plastic one-piece version of Bates circular needle that I must have had since the last century. I don't know when they changed them. I didn't have the size I needed so I had to buy new ones for this shawl, and they are *not* all plastic, they are not the *scoopy* tips.
On the left, the scoopy old ones, on the right, bleah:
You can see the difference, right?
I have been struggling along with these blunt tips on slippery yarn (silk/merino), and wishing I could find the old El Cheapo plastic version. I will be searching: thrift shops, here I come. And, I will be closely examining needle tips, to see if there are some on the market now that have the *scoopiness* I seek.
On the weather front: yes, there has been snow:
This is very early morning, after about 6 inches.
The yurt is a good snow-shedder though, and just after dawn:
snow began to retreat. Being inside the yurt when the snow slides off is quite the experience: it sounds like the whole thing is falling in on your head. Startling, to say the least.
It has remained cold and crisp. The rain chain was ice most of the day, even after the snow was off the branches:
It made pretty splash patterns, frozen mid-drop.
And last, Mothers, don't let your children grow up to be snowboarders:
They'll just send you pictures like this, making you wish you could reach through your monitor and shake them sensible.
posted by Sara at 6:18 AM
10 Comments:
I had started the leaf lace shawl on the addi's and couldn't stand it because the points were awful. So for $6 I bought the Bryspun bry-flex plastic circular needles that have a point similar to what you showed in your photo. I got them from my LYS. They seem to be working much better for me than the addi.
I think you'd like the Denise Interchangeable needles. The tips are a lot like the "good" one in your photo.
- Leisel
http://sagebrush.typepad.com/knotagain
Meg Swanson of Schoolhouse Press (they carry them & now have a shopping cart!) likes the non-nickle-plated Inox needles for things like lace, so check those out too,in case they would suit. (Nickle-plated Inox needles suck in my opinion; stay away from them. They're blunt-tipped, and the plating comes off after only a little knitting and catches on your yarn. Very annoying.)
lisa
www.blackwaterpark.blogs.com
What you're supposed to do is tell them to be snowboarders - then, of course, they won't! They do like to taunt us with those pictures, don't they?
All this knitting talk 'round these parts is giving me a nervous twitch.
The shawl is lovely! I'm not a real knitter, so dare have no real opinions on needles, but tend towards Addi turbos, sorry!
But mostly, *thank you* for the snow photos, the yurt looks so at home in its frozen-steppe-like environment!
And - the rain chain?? Gorgeous, and perfectly suited to *my* climate!
I would also recommend the Inox needles. They really do have nice sharp tips.
So glad I read your posts! I'm going to look for Inox's too. I'm the same as you are about those Addi's, returned them! Uck. I like some of my old needles but they are not around any more either. They say *tight knitters* like sharper points, so I guess that is why we don't like Addis. I love the Dennise, but I need some dpns too. Andy
http://shuvani11.livejournal.com/
Bryspun circs have a very scoopy point - I'm using them for a lacey thing in fine gauge cashmere boucle, the use of which with all other needle points made me very distressed and irritable. And the gray inox circs are terrifically pointy though not particularly scoopy, and excellent for sticking into little slippery stitches.
I've gone off Addi's completely since I tried to K3tog with them.
Very horrible.
Now, dear one, there is nothing wrong with having a little fun in the snow; where else better to wear all that wool... I don't try to do those wild tricks but sure love to snowboard and even survived one offspring's major surgery and recovery back at home last spring, to ride again another day. Course, I also climb a bit, even at my over-fifty stage in life.
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