Knitting love

This last week suddenly I felt hugely motivated to knit, not from pressure or because I like the feel of yarn in my hands but because the motion of knitting into a stitch and sliding it over the needles is so wonderful.

Which means I made a ton of progress on the sock I'd messed up all those years ago! Here we are at Chompy Sock, no less, that delightful stage following Heel Flap.

I re-stained the deck post caps last week too, and they look so clean and new now. Even whiter than the white stripe in this colourway.

Knitting with frogged yarn isn't so spectacular but I stuck with it and, since I'd added in the two stitches that should have been there in the first place, I hit unknit yarn before I got too far into the heel flap. The frogged section from the leg is really bumpy, isn't it.

The other big Yay was that I am really enjoying the needles I found in the bag where I'd stored this mistake sock while I made up my mind what to do with it. They're square metal double points from KnitPicks and when I first bought them to supplement my original and much-loved sets of Kollage square needles, which were somehow no longer available, I found my skin was reacting to the nickel finish. I kept them only to store live stitches when I needed my original needles for something else. Well, that allergy issue seems to have resolved, and now I can enjoy the super slick surface and sheer speed of knitting on them. 

 

The bad news: Knitpicks has changed over to doing square double points in wood only, which I've tried and didn't love, so I can't get more of these needles now that I like them.

The good news that washes right over the bad: Kollage needles are available online now and the needles, now produced in aluminum, even come in blue! Guess who's getting new double points for her Christmas stocking?

If you haven't tried square needles, they really are great. It's a subtle difference in grip with a big payout in reduced hand strain. I wouldn't make socks on anything else. However: you do have to go up a size owing to the lost circumference with the squared-off edges, so I use 2.5mm squares to sub in for 2.25mm round sock needles.

Okay that's enough from me for today... I hope you're enjoying a beautiful Saturday and once again, thank you so much for sharing your time with me. See you next week!