Relax, Needles

Thank you for all the birthday greetings! I had a very enjoyable, low-key day.

After my experience with boiling water and the twisted Tatsy tatting shuttle (a story for another day), I was nervous about dunking the needle cables in hot water. But it worked well enough that they are not driving me completely crazy any more.

I now have all three of the circular needle types that Susan Bates makes: Silverado, Silvalume, and Quicksilver. I really love my Silverado needle. The black cable was limp and cooperative right out of the package.

Both the Quicksilver and the Silvalume have the clear, twisty (less twisty now, thanks to your suggestions!) cable. I can see that the Quicksilver cable is a tad thicker. I like the Silvalume straight needles better than the circ. I haven't knitted enough with the Quicksilver yet to have formed an opinion.

I finished my doubling row, so now each row (366 stitches)takes me about 20 minutes to knit. So I can't show much progress.

Just like knitting on multiple straights, I find I actually like knitting with multiple circular needles. It gives me an ending point without having to knit a whole row, and makes it easy to see how much of the row I've done.

Now I really have to go work on my short hand-out for Saturday!