Week 10 of 2007 in Review

On Knitting…

“Slow” is the word for the week, since it pretty much sums up the knitting action that took place. Apart from having BO these, which were put into good use as soon as they were done, nothing new has been started and only managed a few rounds of Dayflower. I predict this week will be no better since not only does my exit paper need some TLC, I must also work on a 10 page take-home exam due next week which the prof. assigned over Spring Break. So much for a Spring Break filled with excessive knitting. Nope, that will have to wait for some other time if I am to graduate in May as planned.

My Take….

Since there isn’t much else to report let me provide my impression of KnitPicks Bare fingering weigth:

1. The price can’t be beat and the chance to play/experiment with dying is such a perk. Really, you’ll feel bad if you mess up the colors but for less than $5 the feeling won’t last that long.

2. The softness factor is there. Bare felt good to touch and was a breeze to knit with. I experienced zero splitting, breaking or unexpected knots. I was a little disappointed upon closer inspection that the yarn does have a little halo effect. For some reason I was expecting a smoother yarn.

3. While the yarn felt nice and toasty on my feet, it did not feel as soft as I expected. Call me crazy, but the socks felt a little crunchy when I stepped on them. Could it be the bit on nylon in the material, the tight gauge or am I being oversensitive? I also noticed at the end of the day that the socks had stretched a tad and had a slight fuzzy factor. Being only the second pair of socks that I knit and wear, I really don’t know if this is normal. Enlighten me if you can.

4. The yarn is superwash and it did OK during my washing machine test. For testing purposes, the socks went into the regular cycle with warm water. The socks came out fuzzier but it’s nothing a sweater stone won’t fix. They retained their shape and gauge. In the future I’ll test a swatch in the gentle cycle to see how they do. Yes, I know hand knits should be either washed in the gentle cycle or by hand, but I wanted to push the limits; and yes I should’ve sacrificed a swatch instead of my socks, but curiosity got the better of me.

Verdict: 4 out of 5 dpn’s. I would not hesitate to buy this yarn again. Not only is the price reasonable, the fun dye able factor makes it a big plus.

On Stash Building…

Did I mention that I lost one of the Pony Pearl dpn’s I was using while knitting my second sock? I lost it in a blink of an eye somewhere in my sofa. I looked high and low for it, but nada. Luckily, I was still left with 4 so I was able to keep knitting but for some reason I prefer knitting with 5.

A few weeks ago I was able to score my first sets of Pony Pearl’s for 50% off at my LYS. Not only did I like the price, I liked the fact that they were 6” long, which made them perfect for knitting socks. After sacrificing the lost one to my hungry sofa, I thought it would be a good idea to head back to the LYS with the hope that I would still find these clearance needles in stock. As you can see from the image, they did.


I manage to find the last set of size 0’s in 5” after meticulously searching the box they were in for over 10 minutes. Who knows what the staff and customers thought of me as I dug and re-dug through that box, but I was determined to find what I was looking for. In the process, I figured I should get a back up set for the 2’s I already have since loosing one is always a possibility plus got the last set of 0’s in 8” because you never know when you’ll need those. One day I’ll knit a sweater in the round using chunky yarn. That justifies the purchase of the 13” size 19 dpn’s, in the mean time, they just add interest to the needle collection. Oh yes, that is a skein of Sirdar Snuggly plus some Interweave Press word play magnets which were clearance items as well. All this as the result of one little needle. Tell me, is this justifiable?

Until next time, happy knitting and stash building to all.