knitabit

Facing a Harsh Reality

I've been endlessly critical of the Denise Interchangeable Needles (my most virulent rant was here.) Knitting my daughter's poncho last week, I broke yet another cable at the spot where it joins the needle. I think I'm down to just two unbroken cable elements in my set.

So I'm zooming along on Roscalie last night and pop! I broke my brand new Addi! *sob* I've super-glued it back together, but I know it won't last - it will just enable me to pick up a few stitches that got dropped and keep everything safe and sound until a new pair can be secured.

So here's the harsh truth: I'm too rough with the needles when I slide stitches around on the cable. All of my needle breaks have occurred in this exact same location. And they always occur not when I'm forming stitches but when I'm sliding stitches around. I think I let too many stitches pile up on the needle, and when I go to slide them off onto the cable I push a bit too forcefully.

So I guess I need to take back all of the mean things I've said about the Denise's needles. And I apparently need to buy Addi Turbos (metal needles) to withstand the forces that I inadvertently apply when knitting.

I've checked my stitch gauge, and it's dead on. The row gage is not, however, and I've got a growing concern about this sweater being too short. I'm considering adding more length before I get to the armholes. This might mess up the way the pattern on the body meshes with the pattern on the sleeves, so I'll have to study the pattern repetition a bit and see what I can concoct.

I am totally enjoying fair isle knitting - much more than I thought I would. It's very addictive. The color pattern repeats are pretty easy to commit to memory, and it's immediately obvious when you make a mistake - I've had to frog back only a couple of times and not very far, either. I've got the two-handed thing figured out, although my left hand still struggles a bit.

Comments

Still sounds like a product defect to me. But I've always gone with industrial strength when I use cables... Um, isn't that why they call them CABLES? ;-)

Posted by: Patricia Tryon at September 7, 2004 09:06 PM

Similar thing happened to me, only it was my daughter who grabbed a hold of my needle and it broke! I just posted about that a couple weeks ago too! Good luck with yours though.

Posted by: Calissa at September 9, 2004 04:10 PM