A child of the 60s must have

designed Cromarty. What was she smokin? It is a gorgeous sweater, that is why I wanted to make it. But the gauge! The pattern suggests a size 5 (3.75mm) needle and indicates a gauge in st.st. (which I interpreted to be stockinette stitch) of 25 stitches and 31 rows to a 4 inch or 10 cm. square.

Bingo. Right on the money. So without further maths, which was a mistake on my part, I casted on. By row 3, I was starting to wonder. Seemed like a whole lot of distance on each round. So I pulled out a really long cable needle and moved it over just to see. That thing was freaky huge.

I’m talking 56 inches around. Now, I understand this is a really wide sweater with a boxy cut. But, 56 inches is so large that it looked like it would be uncomfortable to wear. I sat down with a calculator to figure out where I went wrong. Cast on 184 stitches for each the front and the back. That’s 368. At a gauge of 6.25 stitches to the inch, that’s 58.88 inches, and given that the pattern has cables pulling it in some, I probably was still hitting gauge right on.

However, the pattern schematic shows the sweater being 57 cm or 22.5 inches. Mistakes were made. I think someone got their math a little messed up and I double, triple and quadruple checked mine so I don’t think it was me.

My choices. Redesign the sweater like a lot of people have done. Leave the bigger more interesting cable patterns, but swap out some of the smaller patterns for even smaller ones and just eliminate a couple. That’s an option.

I also read that a lot of people used way different yarn and needle combos and very few people, even the ones that used a DK weight used a size 5 needle. Most used a 4 or even a 3. I would have to switch yarn — there is no way I could get a reasonable fabric/size combo with the yarn I am using by just dropping needle size.

I also considered that many people have taken well over a year to finish this sweater. That was the deal clincher for me. I brought this yarn with me with the intent of taking a sweater home on 6 Sept.

Back to the drawing board. I have a couple of contenders right now: One is a cable and lace cardigan from Vogueknitting, the other is Classic Elite pattern called “A Morn in May.” Both have lots of interesting stitch action. Might be a real challenge to get either finished, so I’m going to be quite realistic here and keep looking for something that can be finished in just a couple months.

Or maybe, I’ll just go back to socks. I brought sock yarn too. Maybe it’s time for more socks.

I wore these yesterday when I went on a beach walk. I got fascinated by the compositions the shells and seaweed made in the sand. I’ll spare you the bulk of the photos, but here are a couple of my faves.

Why not me?

Lately, it seems, every time I turn around, another knitter has done a review of the infamous Signature needles. So why not me? After I re-confiscated the neon socks from baggage services at the airport in Melbourne, I packed them away until I got settled into the house near Sorell. Then, I put away the offending Clover bamboo needles and pulled out the spiffy new Signature US0 (2.0 mm) needles I bought just before I left.

I swore I would never pay this much for knitting needles. And, given it to do over again, I probably would not. I know, I know. Everyone raves about them. The do have many nice features. Unlike the newer Prym I have used, every needle is the same on both ends. In other words, all the points everywhere are delightfully identical. This pleases me.

I have a set of Inox size 2.0 mm I purchased about 20 years ago, and they too are very similar from end to end and from needle to needle. You can imagine my displeasure with the resident non-knitter sat on them and bent one. He did his best to restore it to a more or less straight condition. Mostly I don’t notice the kink and I guard them very closely now.

More recently (recently being about a year and a half ago), I purchased an ungodly number of Pony needles from Morris & Sons in Sydney (formerly Tapestry Craft). I bought two of every size from 1.25 mm up to 3.0 mm. The ones below size 2.0 are stainless steel and in comparison to the Signatures, I don’t see a huge difference. I think you can get stainless in some of the larger sizes too. I haven’t explored that option yet.

There are some differences, especially at larger needle sizes. Keep in mind, that I’m only looking at 5-needle sets of double points in an 8-inch length in sizes 2.5 mm and smaller.
1. The Pony needles do not have the size etched onto the needle.
2. The Pony points are almost as pointy, but they have a much sharper taper. In other words, they get bigger faster. The more gradual taper on the Signatures makes it easier to work some stitches because you have a little more room for maneuvering.
3. The tips on the Signatures stay just as pointy as the needles get larger in size and the Ponys do not. The bigger Pony needles have blunter tips.
4. The Signatures have micro-grooves along the needle that seem to increase their “cling.” They don’t fall out of the yarn as easily as the Pony needles do.

However, the Pony’s have a huge advantage. Cost. Granted I spent about $110 when I ordered them. However, I got about 16 5-needle sets of the 8-inch double points. Part of the expense was shipping from Sydney to Colorado. I have two of every size, which allows me to work two socks at once. More or less anyway. I like that.

I spent about the same on the Signatures. I have two sets. A 2.0 and a 2.25 mm.

This photo shows the 1.75 mm less-tapered Pony stainless steel (left) vs the Signature 2.0 stainless steel (right).

This photo shows the Pony 2.0, 2.25, Signature 2.25, Pony 2.5 from bottom to top.

Bottom line: If you have the extra cash and you really want to pamper yourself, the Signatures are a great choice. They would be an especially good choice if you are interested in really sharp tips in larger needle sizes. But, if you are on a budget and the needles you use are important, but not overwhelmingly so, you might find some other options out there that will do you good and still leave you with enough left over cash to buy some luxury yarn.

I don’t know. Call me a cheapskate. I’ld rather spend my money on yarn. I guess it’s all a matter of priorities.

I haven’t been posting because

I was getting ready for a major trip, and then I left for that trip, and now I am away on that trip. Now that I am here — here being close to Carlton River, Tasmania, Australia — I have time to do things like work, knit and perhaps post on the blog again.

I am house sitting for a woman who owns 80 acres out in the country. She has a very nice home with a wood stove (an important item because it is winter here) and lovely ocean views off in the distance. I am caring for her dog, her pet mouse and her two horses. There is a nearby neighbor who I see occasionally, but, she’s working nights now.

Here’s my view:

And the mouse, and the dog and the horses:

He's a sweet little fellow

Also a very nice guy to be around

They thought they could push me around, but I've had none of it from them, especially the little mare. She's so mare-like.

And here’s the nearby beach, where the neighbor took me the other day. Lovely.

The weather has been fantastic, especially for winter!

The resident non-knitter is back in Colorado caring for our two horses, two dogs and our cat. He’s handling all the lawn care, house upkeep and the like. Thank goodness it’s him on that end! I got my fill of those duties when I was there and he was here. It’s the only way we could do the house sit, swap turns as it were. It was a lot more work on that end, and not only because I was preparing for the trip. There it’s summer and there is grass to be mowed, weeds to pull and all my work right there.

It has been a nice respite so far. I’ve been asked a number of times what I do with myself to occupy my time. Well, this morning, I talked to the RNK on the phone three times. Granted, this was a bit unusual, but he was setting up Skype to make unlimited phone calls to the land line here. Normally I only talk to him twice.

I called one of the Tasmanian knitters I met on Ravlery, and who I did a magic yarn ball swap which I will post pictures of someday. Haven’t quite gotten them off the phone and onto the computer yet. I spoke to the sister of the woman who owns the house. I talked to my mom.

Meanwhile, I’ve been trying like the dickens to get this post finished so I can get on to work. Several projects in the running right now and I just realized, I need to have the RNK check my cell phone messages for me too. I’ve got two web pages to build, two to update, a feature article to write and a newsletter to layout. Hopefully, I’ll get much of this out of the way before I have to start on the newsletter for my gorilla client right after 6 July.

When I’m not working or caring for animals or myself, I’ve been knitting. I’m working on a very subversive project. A pair of socks that were confiscated by not one, not two, not three, but four Qantas flight attendants. I pointed out when they challenged me over this terrorist act of knitting on the plane, that I was in fact using size 0, bamboo needles and a toothpick would be more deadly. With a straight face, the lead attendant, a man, replied, “yes, it is the very size of the needles that is so worrisome.”

I’m still pondering that one. I just can’t, for the life of me, figure out what is worrisome about a set of bamboo needles that are so fragile that I was in fear of breaking them as I worked. Stick them in a flight attendant’s hand as she passed me my beverage? Hold a fellow passenger hostage with a knitting needle at their neck? In either case, a sharp brush of the hand would have rendered the implement useless and I would have been disarmed. Oh yeah, there are five needles. It would take five swats to completely disarm me. Maybe six if they missed once. And it could be muscle under all my fat. I could be a deadly assassin, hidden by the demeanor of a slightly overweight, flabby, middle-aged woman who looks out of breath even while engaged in the strenuous act of sitting in an airplane seat.

On the other hand, perhaps it was the color of the yarn they found offensive. I picked up this Opal Neon on sale a while back for $10.50 a ball. The colors are brighter in person than they were on the web site. I was a bit shocked when I opened the package. It will be a garish pair of socks. Not for the squeamish. Dangerous stuff.

Perhaps the enforcer steward feared I was going to flash the completed socks at the pilot and blind him. No worries. Wasn’t there a flight en route to the UK just the other day on which the pilot died of a heart attack mid route? I think the co-pilots carried on and the flight attendants continued to serve beverages and meals and not one of the passengers was any wiser until they saw the ambulance greeting the plane. Garish as these socks are, I think the co-pilots would have had the good sense to avert their eyes and carry on with the flight.

Ah well. I will carry on with my subversive activities. Hope to finish them soon and them move on to a tamer project. Cromarty* anyone?

* From Alice Starmore, “Fisherman Knits” or some such title. Ravel it. There are some lovely examples out there.