Friday, June 24, 2016

Fiber Friday: Old Dogs, New Tricks

IMAG1910.jpgAs one of the yarn docs (fiber therapists? I help people with their projects) at the LYS where I work, I'm asked how to do many things, most of which I know.  The other day I was stumped and had to ask a co-worker to switch with me so she could do it.

I learned to knit socks with dpns (double pointed needles).  At the time it was the way to do knitting in the round, for sleeves, hats, mitts. Later someone discovered that you could use 2 circulars and do two at the same time.  I tried and liked using 2 circulars and I go back and forth between the two methods.  They have their issues, pulling out the wrong needle (dpns), using the wrong needle (two circs).

Then came Magic Loop. I've tried magic loop on hats (when I didn't have the right sized 16" needle) and it was ok, but pulling that cable just seemed to stop my rhythm.  So I never tried it for socks and since I generally am a 1 sock at a time knitter, I never tried 2 socks on either 2 circs or magic loop. For two circs it's pretty straight foward, cast-on half the stitches on needle 1, then the other half on needle 2, repeat with sock 2, Not so with magic loop. 

I used the instructions from Spinfoolish so I won't repeat them here.  What I do want to say here are my feelings on this new-to-me method of knitting.  Call me a curmudgeon (not the knitting curmudgeon, that's someone else), I'm all for progress and all, but I'm not so sure this is for me.  I can't help but feel like that guy that thought that cars were too fast, what's wrong with the stage coach? You get to see so much more of the scenery.  Bah.  Progress.

Seriously though, I'm glad I at least tried it and can now show someone else.  It's great that with this method more people can enjoy sock knitting, or any knitting in the round without hating dpns (they're not that bad really -- try the curved ones if you like, see last post).  For myself, I'll stick to dpns or 2 circs.

Happy Fiber Friday folks!