I'm back

I'm back from up North (three days in Glasgow for conference, three days in York for holiday with boy). I stroked Debbie Bliss silk in York and fondled angora in Glasgow. Still, I managed to be good and only purchase some grey scottish yarn I think I'll turn into socks for the boy. It was that or souvenir-buy some Edinburgh Rock, so really this stash enhancement was purely for the good of my waistline. Ahem.

I also got some dpns. I'm a devoted magic-looper, but I decided it was necessary. I took a challenge for the long train journey - some fair isle socks - and discovered that my gage is a LOT looser at the end of the needle than the start, not a good thing in fair isle. I suspected it was something to do with the angle you make the stitches, which in turn relates to how many sts are behind it on the needle and concluded distributing them over five dpns might help. It was a lot slower, but the gage was a lot more regular.

Anyway, one of them snapped last night so I may well have to swap back to the magic loop and complete the experiment comparing gage on the two. And I'm pleased to add I tried doing figure-eight cast on with dpns and magic loop and the latter is a MILLION times easier. When Wendy says it can be fiddly in her knitty article? She was obviously only meaning with dpns. This toe rocks and considering its ease with magic loop, I doubt I'll ever provisionally cast on a toe again.

in other news the veils are starting to fall and Secret Pal's all over the world are showing their identity. I came out to mine, Veronique in New York, in my last package (the secret Magknits project) and she likes it! Do check out her blog, she's a very cool lady doing some amazing knitting.