Sunday, June 21, 2015

Summer in the City

Whoooeee, Summer at last. It's so nice to commute to the office in shorts & tee shirt, work a couple of hours, open the door & windows to let the fresh air in, go outside & water the jungle & then come back to work again without putting on shoes. I've been up & down, in & out & really getting some production going until 3:30 when the sun comes blasting in. All I can do then, is close everything up until about 6:30 when the sun goes behind the trees. So I take a nap.  Sometimes I work after midnight until it just starts to get light & the birds start singing. I love summer.

Being semi-retired is not that bad at all. You just have to have enough money to survive it. LOL And along with being semi-retired is more time to knit.

The latest summer socks should've been done by now. Stupid me, I decided to work on both socks at the same time but on different circs. Since I use the 2 circ method, I had one sock on my Chiagoo metal 2.25mm circs & the other sock on my KnitPicks wooden 2.25mm circs. I was merrily knitting along, turned both heels & just about to the toe shaping on both when I suddenly realized one sock was bigger than the other. Almost a half inch bigger. Not longer - oh no - but wider. I had measured both sets of needles with my brass snail measurer & again with my green ruler measurer - both the same size. BUT, one set is metal & one set is wood. Apparently I knit tighter with metal & looser with wood. This has been a surprise to me. I had no idea that gauge could vary depending on the materials from which the needles were made.

Needless to say, one sock got frogged while I cried big tears & is now being resurrected on 4 DP needles.

2 comments:

Louisa said...

That happens to me too! I knit looser on bamboo than on metal needles. I think the yarn slides easier on metal so it pulls tighter. Or something. Right now I'm knitting sleeves for my latest sweater on bamboo dpns but I've knit the body of the sweater on Addi Lace Clicks. Hope that wasn't a mistake! At least both sleeves would be the same amount of loose.

Sharon in Surrey said...

I'm glad to have learned this lesson on socks. Imagine how I'd feel if I was knitting Long Johns???