Monday, February 25, 2008

Harmony

I am really liking my new(ish) Knit Picks Harmony wood needles. I have both fixed and interchangeable tip styles. Quick list of pros and cons:

PROS

* Slick enough to be fast with the stitches but "sticky" enough not to drop your stitches if you have to lay them down suddenly.

* Colorful and bright. I call them my "Mardi Gras" needles with their purple, green and gold wood colors.

* Fairly inexpensive when purchased individually.

CONS

* Not interchangeable with Boye cables or other parts, even though they look really, really close.

* No cable connector parts available to take two cables and join them together if you need a really long cable. If Knit Picks doesn't sell the length you need, you're out of luck.

* Fixed needles seem "flimsier" than their interchangeable counterparts. I keep worrying I'll snap it right off at the join.

* No sizes on the needle tips anywhere. Even a single digit stamped into the metal bases of the needles would be helpful. Hanging tags onto cables of a work in progress is not useful for the many tips that are sitting unused in your storage case.

Wow, maybe I should have put the "cons" first, as this is coming off a little harsh. Let me say again that I love working with these needles... I have the Boye set, but there's something about working with aluminum that sets my teeth on edge. Plus the aluminum needles in the Boye set are too slick and way too short... my hands cramp up when I use them because they're not long enough to reach the heel of my hand.

The Harmony needles are a goodish length, have a warm feel and sound when being used, are slick enough to get a good fast rhythm going, and have good points that are sloped just about right for my tastes.

Friday, February 22, 2008

Morning Knitting

I get up every weekday at 6am to get the peanut off to school and make sure hubby doesn't oversleep. I have an alarm clock that I can dock my iPod into, and lately I've been waking myself up to podcasts about knitting. I try to get my chores and such done by 9am so that I can start knitting at about that time. However, today was Mom's Day Off (*see note below) so when my eyes were able to open I picked up the project I had put aside the night before and took off with it. As a result I did not get out of bed until 9am. I'm not even sure my husband locked the door behind him.

Starting your day listening to someone talk about knitting is a great way to energize your enthusiasm if you're planning a day of knitting. I feel both industrious and decadent at the same time.

(*Mom's Day Off is a little tradition I started a few years ago when the little one started riding the bus to school. Even in Texas, winter mornings are cold and damp and no fun, so one day a week on Fridays usually, my husband takes her down to the bus stop and lets me sleep in or stay warm inside. I also tend to take the rest of the day off from my other responsibilities.)

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

New Stash is here!

I order yarn stuff every payday (that's hubby's payday, not mine, lol) and this batch has arrived! This is my first order of Knit Pick's "Essential" yarn (bought several sale colors) and the bright, Miami-esque colors are beautiful. Can't wait to turn them into summer socks!

Considering how slowly I progress on fingering-weight socks, I may be done by summer. Ha.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Inspired to Knit...

... if I can ever get off the computer! I just received my invitation to Ravelry.com last night, and I ended up staying up waaaaaay past my bedtime just noodling around and looking at all the cute things other people are making. Today I got serious about listing my yarn stash, and after a few hours I am halfway done (getting organized on Flickr for the stash photos and slogging stuff over to my PC kind of slowed me down... my stash is not that huge!) There was also twain drivers to install, and those million little things that slow you down when starting something new on the PC.

Today, I am two discs into the entire series of "Andromeda" and I will be knitting to that if I ever get away from this electronic menace.