knitabit

Good 'Ol Addi Turbos

Roscalie is steaming along on the new Addi Turbo needles. My tension has settled down and is very even, the two-handed thing is going great, and I'm not the least bit bored or intimidated with the project so far.

Oops, it's blurry. The curl at the bottom is the hem facing, which will be hand stitched in place once this piece is done. The steek is on the right side, below the stitch marker.

I should have bought the Turbos in the first place. I felt compelled to buy wooden needles due to an incident that happened four or five years ago...

I was just getting back into hand knitting, after having been deep into machine knitting for quite some time. I was at the LYS for the first time - the delightful Over the Moon Cafe and Mercantile (no longer in business.) The yarn shop was owned by Tara Jon Manning, now a published author (Men in Knits among others.) Actually, she was probably published at that time; I didn't know I was talking to a minor knitting celebrity.

ANYWAY, I was browsing for yarn and told her I didn't want to invest my knitting effort into a cheap acrylic yarn that would only pill up over time. (I was just starting to develop the yarn snob tendencies.) She made the point that many knitters find that knitting needles made with natural materials seem to complement natural fiber yarns. OK, that turned me into a needle snob right on the spot. I went home and looked with disdain upon my vast collection of aluminum needles, acquired over the years and some handed down from my mom.

When I first started sock knitting, I of course bought sets of wooden double-pointed needles. Turns out, a size 1 wooden needle will last about a day at my house before it gets sat on, stepped on, bumped, etc. Then I discovered knitting socks on circular needles and Cat Bordi's "Socks Soar" book recommended Addi Turbos. And so the love affair began.

Starting Roscalie, I thought that a nice quality wooden needle would be just the thing for the Shetland wool. It sounded so homey and comfy to knit up a fair isle with Shetland wool and wooden needles.

Well, the Turbo's are doing just fine, thank you very much, with no danger of breakage or damage from shifting the stitches around on the cable. The tension's even and I seem to be knitting faster.

Lesson learned.

Comments

Turbo anything sounds pretty good to me. ;-)

Posted by: Patricia Tryon at September 11, 2004 12:18 PM

Love my turbos. But I just reach for whatever is closest and cope there on with what happens with yarn and needle. If it's slippery, I just tighten my grip. If it grabs, I just slide it along. There isn't a "right" answer, IMHO.

Posted by: Mary Beth at September 11, 2004 09:17 PM