Sitting here and the kids are actually being quiet – amazing for a holiday weekend morning!
I wanted to remind everyone that Mosaic Yarn Store is taking crocheted and knitted 8×8 squares in burnt orange, maroon, black and white to join into afghans for VT victims and their families. Here is a link to their blog with all the pertinent info: http://mosaicyarnshop.blogspot.com/2007_04_01_archive.html I was able to get six squares to them earlier in the month.
I’m working my way through learning how to knit two socks at a time on two circular needles. I’m using a discontinued color from Opal – in the summer line – and I love the yarn. I’m struggling a little with the two at a time on two circs, mainly because Cat Bordhi’s Socks That Soar book and Charlene Schurch’s Sensational Socks books (where I get almost all of my patterns) both just deal with one at a time and I tried to redistribute the stitches as recommended when I came to decreasing the gusset and then back again after the decrease. Clearly, that is possible when knitting one at a time on two circs, but not two. I had to get out my dpns and actually take one sock off the circs to make it work.
Anyhow, when getting the one sock off, I came to the realization that Addi has its own system for sizing that is not standard. It is .25 mm larger than the industry guidelines for their smaller needles. I first found this out when I had to get out my size 3 dpns by Pony to get the same diameter as my size 2 Addi Turbo circs (3 mm), because my size 2 Pony Pearls were 2.75 mm. I thought that Pony must have been off, given Addi’s stellar reputation. But then I checked my plastic needle guage and they had 2.75 mm as size 2’s. And then I pulled up the industry guidelines (http://yarnstandards.com/hooks.html). I then looked at the insert in my Addi envelope that lists the sizes along the side and a number of the smaller needles all run “large” when they convert them to US sizing.
Moral of the story: if at all possible, forget about US sizing for sock needles and stick to mm, since the popular brands do seem to be different in how they convert to US sizes.
