Tuesday, April 10, 2007

In a Slump

I worked till 12:30am on Saturday (ok, technically Easter Sunday morning), for this. And did I mention that it's the second Saturday in a row? All comes down to this. My knitting is in a bit of a slump as well. My mom is visiting and I gave her all the wool yarn I've collected for her in the last few months. She's on fiber high. Evidently that included my car project (a charity blanket that I just started). So now I'm car-project-less. I have to find something absolutely mindless so my fingers can be on auto pilot while I keep my mind and eyes on the road. There is three-hour car trip tomorrow, I need a mindless project. Has to be mindless cause if I look down I'd get carsick. As a one-project-at-a-time girl, my main project, the Uptown Coat, is in a slump as well. I'm up at the arm holes, separate the front and decreased for the left front. It's not looking quite as well as I've hoped. The body was knitted in one piece and I only had a 29 inch needle, mighty hard to squeeze all the stitches together. At Stitches I ordered a 36 inch wooden needle from SonShapes for $35. That's a lot of money for a circular needle. For the next month I chugged along on my trusty little Clover, dreaming of the nice smooth surface of hard wood needle with the extra long extension cable. Finally the needle showed up (it's custom made, ought to take some time), one size too big. So I had a nice conversation with the SonShapes people and they were going to replace it, yada yada yada. Last week they called me again, they don't know if they can make the needle one size smaller. They don't know what size is a standard US size 10 needle. They don't know how to use a needle gauge. They have never heard of Clover. They wanted me to mail the needle back to get a refund. Did I mention they are five miles from my house? Tonight, I'm gonna put the coat on the back burner, and figure out what I really want to knit.

3 comments:

Sarah said...

Well, Vivian, it never rains but it pours. You need to stop knitting so much and READ.

Have fun with your trip tomorrow.

Jocelyn said...

Sweetie, I got 3 words for you (well, one word, one symbol and a website): Options @ knitpicks.com

but then if you like bamboo -- you're SOL, unless you want to get a longer set of clovers...yarndogs is having a sale -- ends this weekend.

Vivian said...

I'm pretty stubborn with my needles, either bamboo or wood, haven't used anything else, almost never. And I haven't bought any needle for quite a few years since I stick with two or three projects at a time of different levels and sizes. I'm pretty picky about the joints too, no metal or screw caps, so the new Addi Natura is out.

Obviously a new set of Clover will take care of it, but I really wanted to splurg on something nice this time, guess it just doesn't meant to be. Now I just hope I will eventually get my $35 back.