Knitting Lessons Learned

[neadods]

Just FYI, y'all, I have discovered that you can knit with cheap yarn or cheap needles, but not both at once.

When I started knitting, I was using the Clover needles and that Lion Brand/Sugar and Spice cotton, because both are so cheap and easy to find. Then I started knitting with the good needles and yarn and going back was suddenly like pushing rough twine up sandpaper.

The Sudoku blanket is being made with cotton on a cone, mostly because this drops the price for all the necessary yarn from around $600 (ergo the title "$600 in Therapy and a Free Afghan") to about $50.

Clovers are too rough. Knit Picks are too pointy. (I knit by pushing on the needle tip - you'll see what I mean if you look at the video below - and after a while, my fingers really hurt.) Lantern Moons are good, but Knitters Pearls are better: although wooden needles, they're polished so highly it's like knitting with greased plastic, and the tips hit the perfect spot between too sharp or too dull.

Also, the Single Crochet Castoff (scroll down, there's video) has permanently fixed my castoff problems; I always had to cast off with a needle about 4 sizes bigger to make sure it wasn't too tight. And then it was too loose.

Finally, for those in countries with Giant Grocery stores, I have become a sudden devotee of their reusable grocery bags. I know I have a bazillion totes (most saying "Malice Domestic" on them) but the Giant bags have a really good capacity, stand on their own, and only cost a buck. IOW, they're excellent project bags.

Comments

[cozit.livejournal.com]

Interesting.. because silly me actually bought two sets of double-pointed bamboo needles that weren't Clover... and have regretted not buying the cheaper Clovers at the time (my LYS was out of them, and I didn't feel like popping over to Michaels) - they are rougher/less "slippery", and I like the Clover because they don't slip out, though they slide reasonably well.

For really slippery I love my Addi needles - straight or circular (but especially the circular :-) I've got all kinds, the oldest of which are from somewhere in the 50s, apparently... but I love those Addi. (ok, the "Baleen" plastic things are nice, too - but they can be on the pointy side for the fingers / splitty yarn)

[neadods.livejournal.com]

As far as I can tell, the Knit Picks are essentially the wooden version of Addis, with many of the same properties.

But the Knitter's Pearls - I've never knitted on wood so slick.