WIP: Nuvem Wrap

This mass of copper-colored yarn is going to be a Nuvem.

A hexagonal wrap, knit in the round, miles and miles of stockinette, in laceweight yarn.  Let’s just say I’m going to be working on this one for a while.  It survived the reckoning with my WIP basket because I’m enjoying the knitting, it’s mindless stockinette, and I know I will use the crap out of it when it’s done.

I’m using Knitpicks interchangeable needles for this project.  My opinion of the knitpicks needles is not as high as it used to be, but I can say one good thing about them: since they are affordable,  I have a full set of wood tips and also a number of metal tips purchased individually.  Which allows me to do this:

I like the feel of the wood needles and the “grabbines” of the wood prevents the stitches from sliding off the right needle when I put the project down.  But in a project of all knit stitches and trying to be speedy, the slick metal surface on the left needle helps things along.

I started with about 200 g of yarn, and after six months of on-and-off knitting I’m down to 150 g. Sigh.

Quick Tip – Needle Sizes

I bought most of the knitting needles I own around the same time, and it seems that they are all going kaput around the same time too.

The interchangeable needles are having this problem:

So I decided it was time for a replacement/upgrade.  The same package that brought me a turkish spindle also had this in it:

A shiny new set of HiyaHiya interchangeable circs. I was eager to dive into the project on the broken needle shown above, but as I’m away from home this summer, I didn’t have my needle sizer to figure out what I was knitting on.  (In retrospect, I could have just checked my Ravelry project page, but that would have been the easy solution so of course I didn’t think of it.)

What to do? I took some white string (actually some white single I spun a while back and use as a leader yarn on my spindle), wrapped it around the broken needle, and drew a line with a pen.

The pen marks will only line up around another needle if it’s the same diameter as the original.

Correct diameter – the ink lines match up

Wrong size needle – ink marks don’t match up

This idea is related to an ancient form of cryptography called a scytale.  People would send secret messages by wrapping the notes around a stick of a certain diameter; only those with a stick of the same diameter could read the message.

I think this is the first time my academic research has informed my knitting – I’m tickled!

Sadness is…

A broken knitting needle.

Hiya Hiya bamboo needle, after a sock

Almost brand-new too – I made it halfway through the first sock before it snapped. I was reminded of this tragedy when I found this while cleaning out my desk today.

This is the third or fourth sock needle I’ve broken.  Apparently I keep the needle in a death grip while knitting. No more non-metal sock needles for me.

Another sad thing? Frogging.

I had a brioche scarf project in my desk at work for the last year, something to knit during small breaks in the day and/or when I felt ready to explode and needed to calm down. Even though I could tell that the fabric was coming out too stiff for an enjoyable scarf I kept knitting. I also realized that it was sucking yarn like no tomorrow and would end up entirely too short.  Yet, I kept knitting it.  Why do we do things like that?

Anyway, I ripped the entire thing back.  A years’ worth of (admittedly on-and-off) knitting down the drain.  It’s especially fitting since I just recently packed up my office and left that job.

The scarf that wasn’t meant to be.

Sad, yet liberating.  There’s a lot one can do with two balls of Cascade 220!