a bonafide yarn emergency
I tried to start my first ever sock yesterday, as planned. Then something awful happened: the Trekking threw-up at me. I could not, COULD NOT find the end inside the ball. Lots of other yarn came out, but not the magic end to start all socks. I'm not at home right now, no ball-winder handy to rewind from the outside. What was a girl to do???I did the only reasonable thing I could think of. I went to Knit-O-Matic (a new yarn store for me, and very close to where I'm staying), and bought some more sock yarn. On sale, no less. Everyone knows that sock yarn doesn't count in a yarn diet, especially SALE sock yarn.
Thinking ahead, I picked out TWO, just in case I had the same "critical" problem again. ONline Supersocke in some luscious pinks, and 2 50g balls of Schoeller & Stahl Fortissima in a cool turquoisy-rainbow variegated colorway. Did I mention this stuff was on sale??? I could have really gone nuts, but I kept my cool and just chose two. Actually, I congratulate myself...
When I got in from work around 11:30 last night, I started with the fortissima, determined to begin my socks on solstice, when... BLECHHH. It threw-up too. (this really was the longest day).
Finally frustrated, I decided to just work from the outside of the ball of Trekking and re-ball on Saturday when I'm home for a few hours. About to cast on, closing in on midnight, I realized I did not know the long-tail cast on method preferred for socks. Thank Alpaca for wireless internet. And thank Stitch Diva for a nice tutorial to pull me through. I got it, sometime shortly after midnight.
So I'm cast on, and about half an inch into ribbing. Feeling good about the summer...
I have two requests for suggestions. First, does anyone have a good method for finding the magic end out of a ball of yarn? Surely I'm doing something wrong here. And second, I'm finding my Regia metal 2.5mm dpns a bit to sticky with this yarn. Any suggestions for something more slippery? Thanks, folks!
posted by miss ewe @ 9:49 a.m.
6 Comments:
re: Centre pull balls - I've given up hope. I can't figure them out.
Center pulls, you must stick your forefingers of both hands in both ends to find the middle of the ball, then once you have that put your thumb in one end also and voila with one forefinger and one thumb you should be able to pull out a small amount of the middle. It would be easier to show you. Also my favorite sock needles are 5" bamboo, 2.5mm. Not heavy, not sticky, and not slippery.
I second rhonda on the bamboo...much better! As for centre pull...I've always had more problems with a skein if I pulled from the center than from outside. I've never really heard a convincing argument why one is better than the other. Usually if I centre pull I end up with a mess when the outside end starts unravelling while I'm knitting from the middle.
Well, the Trekking I've been using (from the outside so far) gets all twisted around itself, whereas I seldom have that problem from the inside. But if you're using a ribbon yarn or similar (something that can sit flat) then from the outside is the way to avoid the twist. Anyway, I'll re-wind it on the weekend and try again next time...
Thanks for the bamboo tip... I'll try it.
I tend to poke fingers in from both sides to open up the skein a bit, then I grab a tiny hunk and pull, as Rhonda says. If it comes out and there's only one strand leading back to the ball, the end is in that part somewhere. Otherwise I pick one end and pull on it and hope it unravels quickly and the end pops out. There's no real rhyme or reason, unfortunately!
Appreciate your bblog post
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