Lace and Skulls

Honestly, when I got the Knit Picks Options needle set I thought I had it made. The right size needle for any project, right at my fingertips in a little plastic pouch.

Boy was I naive.

When I went to knit the Lacy Neckwarmer with my Lemongrass Patons Classic, I suddenly realized that you can't work 77 stitches in the round on a 24" needle. So that necessitated a quick purchase of a new 16" size 9 needle. I went to Len's Mill, since their knitting needles were 30% off in the latest flyer. But the downside is...they are Susan Bates grey metal needles with hard plastic cables and poor joins.


I would certainly rather use an Addi, Knit Picks, or Hiya Hiya circular needle (clearly I am a needle snob), but I seem to be managing with the one I have. There is one thing though. I am wondering why the designer specified size 9 needles at all. Maybe the designer knits tighter than I do? Or maybe the original yarn called for was thicker and I didn't notice? [EDIT: Yup, that would be it. The pattern is meant for Aran yarn, which is slightly thicker than regular worsted.] Anyway, for whatever reason, this is knitting up really loose for me.

I thought I might finally have enough experience knitting simple lace that I could manage this one without stitch markers, but apparently not. With the markers it becomes easy knitting for travel or TV watching. (Er, mostly. So what if I had to frog five rows last night? Blame Hercule Poirot!)

On a slightly different note, getting some massage therapy is really helping to loosen up the muscles around my hip. My husband and I book our appointments together right now, since I am not cleared for driving yet. (Wednesday, I hope!) So the other night in the waiting room while I was knitting away on this lace project, I had a lady who was clearly a knitter asking me about it. In the end, she borrowed my paper printout of the pattern and just made a photocopy. She was going to write down the URL, but it ended up being easier to copy the pages. (It's kind of a long URL.)

I love being a knitting ambassador! Oh, and the woman really liked the Lemongrass yarn, too, so I told her it wasn't available at Len's Mill, and the only place I'd seen it locally was Michaels. Now don't you locals all go out and buy it up. I need another skein or two to make a matching hat, and possibly even mittens if I really get ambitious.

Although, my next project is probably going to involve the Ossuary Chart [Rav link] I just downloaded from Ravelry. Skulls! Whee!