Things I've Learned

One day into my Charade socks and I've already had to frog and rethink and sort some things out.

• I found knitting with 5 needles just plain ridiculous -- not that I have experience with this at all, but 30 minutes of struggling and two mistakes later, I decided 4 needles *might* be easier. I frogged (because of the mistakes), cast on over 3 needles, and started again. I haven't looked ahead at the pattern to see if I'll have to make adjustments later on but I'm sure I can work that part out when I get to it (says Scarlett). So far the 4 needles do seem much less cumbersome than 5.

• I knit continental and as far as I can tell, there's no good way to hold the extra needles. Again, I have no experience with this, but I looked on the internet and tried various ways of holding the needles and I'm just not getting it. Both hands are somewhat active -- the left hand index finger moves down and then up when I purl, and the right hand does most of the other work -- and so far what has worked for me is to just let the extra two needles drop behind my work and knit as if I'm only using two needles.*

• It seems critical (to me) to hold the two non-working needles behind the two working needles. Again, there may be other ways to do this, but I'm not getting it if there is.

• Knitting with fingerling yarn for a first sock project probably wasn't the best idea. Add to that that I have to drop down a couple of needle sizes to get gauge, which means I'm working with tiny needles. Add to that the yarn I chose splits easily. I'm tempted to set it all aside, go pick up a heavier yarn, and start a new pair of socks... but I'm also very stubborn and determined to see this through. The socks will probably be a great learning experience -- i.e., a total disaster.

• One other thing I've decided is that instead of doing a twisted rib for the cuff, I'm just doing a 2x2 rib. The twisted rib wasn't difficult at all but with the fine yarn that splits easily, the smaller needles, and the fact that this is a first-socks project, I decided to take the easy way out for the cuffs.
  

Plugging away!


*if anyone knows a better way, please help me out! Please, please, please!

~~~~~~~~

Added, Wednesday afternoon: some success! Ignoring the non-working needles is working fine (with bamboo needles the stitches aren't trying to slip off) and I have three rows done and it's already starting to feel smoother.


On with the show.