Tag Archives: needles

Twist Shorties

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My dad is a Christmas fanatic. It’s like HIS holiday and he is about the closest thing to a real life Santa as I have met. He is pretty much in charge of our family Christmas. But this year he needed a little help. He and mom have had a lot of medical appointments all winter and then they were out of town for 10 day in California. So he let me take the reigns of Christmas shopping because there was no way he could be done before Christmas.

And I did a knitter proud. I have been wanting the ChiaoGoo shorties in the sock needles for over a year. I have seen them all over the blogs and YouTube podcasts and they looked right up my alley. I knit a lot of socks and hats and it would nice to have interchangeable to fit whatever my gauge needs are. So I went stalking the internet for a set…and I found a sale! I found HelloWeCraft on Etsy was having a sale before Christmas where the sets were 20% off and FREE SHIPPING!

So I managed to snag both the sock set and the regular set without breaking my budget. There weren’t very many left and I might have cart jacked someone. Sorry not sorry! I thus far taken them out to play with all the parts but haven’t actually used them yet. But just look at what they came with!!

I’m thinking I will use the larger needles as a carrot to finish my Weekender so I can use the small circumference to knit my sleeves without needing double points!

Did Santa bring you anything knitting related?

P.S. Santa brought my dad a new pellet grill after his 20 year old gas grill tried to burn down his porch. So Dad had a pretty good Christmas too 🙂

Merry Christmas to All

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I must have been a very good girl this year!

   
 
Size 9 US glass needles with rose tips from Knitting Dharma.

  
Knitty Sock 2 by Two Windows Dye Company in a semi-solid purple color. This is a new to me dyer from my home state of Kansas!

And last but not least

  
The Joy of Socks by Linda Kopp! And the best part my mother-in-law did this all without even asking for a hint!

All jokes aside, I wish everyone a safe and merry Christmas. I’m off to go watch the magic of Christmas through my toddlers eyes! Knitting can wait because babies do not ❤️ 

Happy Knitting and Merry Christmas!

I Love Organization!

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My biggest OCD trait is organization. Clutter makes me grumpy and I like for items to be stored neatly. This includes my knitting.

My mom knows this, so she dropped a little surprise in the mail this week. A new circ needle organizer! Made by the talented hands of my mother….

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It’s made of up-cycled jeans, leftover quilt scraps, and some netting. There are eight….count’em eight pockets!

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I pulled together all my plastic and wooden fixed circulars and loaded them in. Short circs in the inside pockets, wood on one side and metal on the other. And the longer circs live in the outside pockets, again wood on one side and metal on the other.

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The case folds easily and the velcro is holding closed for now. I might be inclined to slip a rubber band around it, just to be sure. But I’m very happy that my circs are no longer stuffed into my straight needle case.

How do you store your circs?

Knitting Disaster

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I am always knitting something and to be brutally honest I am usually knitting many projects at once. Lately I have been churning and burning items for my booths at a fall and winter craft sales coming in November and December. It’s been daunting lately and I felt a strong pull to make something special, just for myself.
I made a quick swing through the yarn store and picked up some luxurious (and expensive) yarn. I studied patterns and picked a super sweet shrug design that would be perfect for fall. And with that I was off to the races!
I had just grafted my second hank of yarn on the first and had about 10 inches complete……then disaster struck! I had purchased Denise Interchangeables early this year and I had used the crap of the larger needles. This was my first project with the US 5 size. I went to push the work down off the needle onto the cord so i could turn to start the next row and SNAP! The needle broke right above where it attached to the cord!

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I gasp do loudly that my husband came to see what was wrong from the room. I had dropped about 25 sts across and 2 rows down. This was 15 minutes before I had to walk out the door for a performance at the local theatre. I wanted to cry and scream at the same time! I knew I didn’t have any other 5s on hand do I grabbed a set of US 6s and carefully picked up the loose stitches so I didn’t lose any more work and then ran out the door.

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The next day I swung by Joann’s and picked up some Boye’s metal US 6 29 inch circs. I very carefully frogged my piece back off the broken 5s and temporary 6s onto the new 5s. Took me over an hour, but by golly I got it fixed. A quick count told me I still had all 216 sts! I am now halfway done 🙂

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I know knitting disasters happen to knitters of all levels and I am better for it. I didn’t panic and frog the whole thing and I’m calling that a win! This will be a sweater to remember!

I am also contacting Denise about a replacement needle. I know the needles are low end plastic…but they structurally failed on the first project! All the larger sizes have performed beautifully and I had been very happy with my set. Time will tell…

Happy Knitting to all!