"Your Package Has Arrived"

Remember the Harmony knitting needles I ordered? They have arrIIIiived!!

They are so beautiful!

The laminated layers don't show up on the tiny needles quite as well as I had hoped, but they are still wonderful to look at and handle.

The set includes six sizes...well, kind of. I'm sure you're not surprised to hear that there are several sizing systems for knitting needles. Here in the US there is, of course, the American size, and slowly and fitfully you get metric sizes. You can roughly approximately a needle from one system with a close size of the other, but they are not exact. In the case of very small needles, the US system just isn't refined enough. So this set includes:

Metric = US size

2.00 mm = size 0

2.25 mm = size 1

2.50 mm = size 1

2.75 mm = size 2

3.00 mm = size 2

3.25 mm = size 3

See what's wrong there? And coming from Canada, I have a few UK sized needles mixed in too. That is more confusing because it uses the same numbers as the US system but the sizes aren't the same. (And I think one goes up as the sizes increase, and the other counts down for increasing size.) But somehow, I carry on...

When Troy saw the needles, he commented on their similarity to toothpicks, so that prompted me to make the comparison:

The smallest size (left) certainly is approaching toothpick size.

So what to do with them? I ordered them so I'd have something to work some socks out of this wool I unraveled from a vest from Goodwill:

First I rolled the one skein into a ball and then started to knit a swatch. I was eager enough to try the needles but not quite ready with a pattern to start. And the wool from the front of the vest kept breaking on me as I unwound it. I spliced the pieces together but needed to know whether it would hold up to being reknit.
I'm using the size 1 needles...just teasing...it's the 2.50 mms. 24 stitches.
The swatch is very cute and the wool knit up fine, despite being veeerrry thin in places. I got it cast off tonight and will wash it a little and let it dry to see if it holds up. Then I'm going to search (again) for the sock tutorial on knitting socks from the toe up so I can get something "real" started. My feet are so excited by the promise of green woolly socks. Yum!

But now for some sleep,

christina

PS: EZ says swatches are not wasted, but make very handy pockets. However, I can't quite imagine incorporating a pocket onto my socks...