Knit Picks interchangeables, a change of heart - and other stuff

I've decided to slowly build up a custom set of the Knit Picks interchangeable needles. It would be silly of me to buy a full set when I don't use small needles, and I'm not sure I'd ever be able to decide between the wooden and the metal tips. Building my own set means I can mix and match.

I was spurred on after reading a discussion on Ravelry where someone suggested buying single tips of each type to try them out before buying a set. Not sure why I didn't think of that myself! I went straight to the Get Knitted and bought a pair each of the tips, and a couple of cables. I was gutted when they arrived (after a few more days than I would have liked) to find that they got my order wrong and sent two sets of the metal tips. I sent two emails over the course of a week to try and get the correct needle but didn't hear anything. I'd only used Get Knitted once before and had heard really good things about their customer services so I was getting annoyed and impatient to say the least! Am desperate to see what the wooden needles look like in real life, and have a project ready and waiting to jump on them! I eventually found the note on their website saying that they'd been having email problems, which calmed me down a bit and made me a little more sympathetic to them...although I'm still really peeved. I rang them up on Friday and she said the correct needles would be sent that day - I hoped they would arrive in the post on Saturday, but they didn't. Grr.

One good thing I found about the stuff that arrived correctly was that you get two end caps and locking pin with each cable (all for 99p!). Although this was all shown in the photo on the website, it wasn't included in the description, so I assumed you would just get the cable. Bonus. This helped with my decision.

Even though I'm not Get Knitted's greatest fan just at the moment, I have just sent them another order, including more cables and needle tips. It's not like I can go to any other supplier as, as far as I'm aware, they're the only ones who have them in the UK!

I just need to think of a storage solution for them as I'm going to be case-less. I'm going to look into fishing tackle cases as they are generally cheap, often take the form of a neat, zip closed binder with a number of transparent, sealed pockets. Sounds perfect for circular needles! I just need to find a nice looking one...

So on to knitting progress!

I eventually finished my scarf. It's a short, button closed affair and I love it! The softness and gorgeous coloured yarn works out really well. Very happy, although could have done without the numerous froggings of other patterns, I could have knit the scarf 3 times over, easily!



I also made birthday gift for one of my friends. It was an early gift, her birthday isn't until March, but she was calling in over the weekend so I thought I'd save the postage and give it to her early. I also wanted to see her reaction...but curses, she didn't open it but said she'd keep it for the big day. Ah well, I wasn't going to force it.

I used Noro Iro which is a very beautiful yarn. I made a narrow scarf which set the striping off wonderfully, and made some flip top mittens to go with it. I was very impressed with myself regarding the mittens. They're the fiddliest thing I've worked on, especially as I didn't have any suitable needles to magic loop them, so had to use the dreaded dpns. My boyfriend was fascinated with them, I regularly caught him staring at me working on them. He had very nice things to say about the finished article too and was really appreciative of how much work had gone in to them. Aww. He wasn't too happy that it took me a whole evening to do the sewing and weaving in of ends as I needed the main light on in the front room which is very bright and spangley. Ah well, I finished in time to settle down and watch Jools Holland in our more customary mood lighting.







I've come to a stop with my shopping tunic. I'm two thirds done and am at the point where I could try it on. With some help from my boyfriend holding the needles, I wiggled into it and stood in front of the mirror. We were both in complete agreement as to how TERRIBLE it looked. It's supposed to be quite fitted, but this thing is far too tight, and being quite chunky it makes all my bits that are quite big enough look HUGE. Disaster! To try to salvage something I'm going to play with my swatch and see how much it grows in the wash. I've made two of the same size so I can compare after one has been washed and blocked. Too fed up to face it at the moment though.

I've been doing a bit more of my PIF knitting too, but keep needing the needles for other things. This is one project that will come along much faster once Get Knitted send me the RIGHT needles!

I also got to the free limits of Flickr this week. 200 photos! After much thought, I invested in a Pro account but didn't really want to. I'm quite happy with having a Pro account for my general photos, as I have a lot of friends and family I share them with. I don't want to put all my knitting stuff on there as it would take it over. After getting frustrated that I was taking photos and not adding them to Flickr (and Ravelry), I decided I would be happier just biting the bullet and spending the extra money. Happiness over frustration...and it's not *that* expensive...although all these things add up.

Well, I think that's enough rambling for now, I need to do some stuff round the house - although the weather is so lovely, I’m fighting the urge to curl up and have a snooze in a sunny patch - cat like.