knitelly

On Wednesday I went to I Knit London at the New Players' Theatre. As always, knitting in convivial surroundings, meeting new people, catching up with the old, and of course, drinking red wine all added up to a thoroughly enjoyable evening.

Even though I knew the lighting wasn't going to be the best, I took along the Knitty Cozy I started for myself some time ago. Yep, it's black, and yep, it's lace, but I know the [simple] pattern by heart, so I figured I'd be safe. Fool, fool! At some point, I made a mistake and although I did try to rip back a couple of rows and fix it, the combination of the afore-mentioned lighting, chat and *cough* wine all conspired to make it worse.

I put it away in disgust, and resorted to my on-the-go socks, whereupon the marvellous Stefan insisted on teaching me magic loop. At first I resisted, thinking it would be too complicated for me, but he made me knit a couple of rows of his own sock-in-progress to test it out. It turned out to be surprisingly simple, really SO SIMPLE, and really more logical than magical. So, having converted me, Stefan got me some 2.5mm Addi Turbos and I continued on my own sock. The little Addis are so smooth and pointy, and the little stitches just glide from needle to needle, I just flew through the next inch.

I was so excited to learn something new, but at the same time, I'm torn. I LIKE using DPNs. I dunno, I suppose handling those tiny bamboo sticks makes it feel more like knitting. I remember my first time with DPNs, and how lucky I was not to lose an eye; now, despite only having knit the grand total of three socks, I am completely comfortable working with four needles, and whip them out regularly on bus and tube journeys. (Harrumph, the circular is definitely better for travelling; I magic looped on the tube home that night, and didn't worry once about dropping stitches, dropping needles, snapping needles...).

Tomorrow, I'm going to catch up properly with both my secret pals. Last week, I sent my spoilee a small gift. Annoyingly, it will not arrive in time for Christmas (although it was bought and sent on the promise that it would, hence my irritation). Something else I have bought for her is still in transit to me; this particular item was quite difficult to find, not to mention very precious, so I hope it's just the Christmas season that is causing the delay and it hasn't got lost in the post.

Hopefully Blogger will be behaving itself too, so I can post some pictures!