Skeinspotting

My New Pressie

I felt like spoiling myself, especially as I have been knitting the same toe of a toe up sock forever and still can't get it exactly the way I want it! Anyway, I was attracted to the Knitpicks Options needles and dpns, which I purchased together.
I know I am not the first person to have brought these to the community's attention, many other knitters having spoiled themselves this way recently.

My first impression was ooooh the lovely feel of the slippery lacquered wood, and the prettiness of the laminates as the colours layers show like a grain in the wood. Also, I was pleasantly surprised that even with my hands I can handle screwing the needles points on and off. I purchased this with a set of dpns I am very pleased with the dpns which are a set of sock needles, but a little disappointed they only go up to size 3.25mm. I think perhaps they assume any higher than that is not a 'sock' needle and that means I will need to knit my hats either on the magic loop system, one long circular which I have not done before, or I will need to purchase extra needle tips.

Also, the needle tips only go up to 8mm, so I have purchased an extra 9mm, 10mm and 12mm. Overall, it was quite expensive, but looks less like a clinical piece of medical equipment than some of the other sets out there.
The biggest advantage of owning a set like this of course, is that I won't have to sit down and think really hard about which needles to take on holidays, nor will I have to worry about buying a yarn whilst away and having to wait til I come home to try it out.

In addition to that, the extra cables and 'stoppers' to put on the ends of them means that I will be able to swap needles, or swipe them for another project and keep the current project safely on needles that won't have suicidal stitches jumping off the ends. Actually, I am ashamed to admit that my stash is so large I need an inventory to refer to now, and I have so many projects in bags, I just know I have needles hiding away in the cupboards. Hopefully this new set will make me much more organised.

I will write up a little review of my first attempt at the 'magic loop' as I usually use 2 circulars, but can't be quite so indulgent at this price!

I have used the dpns and circulars for a little test run, and I can confirm that the lacquer on the wood makes them as smooth and slippery as aluminium ones, with just a very slight hitch on the join when pulling stitches round, but that was because I had not tightened the join with the little key given for that purpose.

I know I have got a lack of knitting on this blog, that doesn't mean I am not doing any, it just means that what I am doing is confidential. I have a pattern coming up in The Inside Loop next issue (Spring/Summer), a couple of patterns in The AntiCraft but not until Samhain (October) and I am knitting some foot garments for a yarn company, and also have more accessories to do in the form of 4 projects for a book.

Next time I do a pattern where I have to provide the photography, I am going to be using the models who have contacted me and possibly some make up artists and the best freelance volunteer photographer I can find. I always panic about the pics, and don;t panic at all about knitting the garments or the patterns. Even if I have designed something on paper and don't yet know how the actual knit will turn out, I know that with good time management, I will come up with something that is better than I expected. However, although I know how I want photos to look, I am not exactly a good model and so have relied on friends in the past which is a bit hit and miss with availability.