Double vision and new needles

My Knitpicks Options arrived from GetKnitted in the post yesterday and I’ve started knitting with them already. So far so good. I switched them into my Double Vision project so I could compare them directly with the Addi Turbos that are my usual favourite circulars. They’re sharper than the Addis which has meant that I’ve had to adjust my knitting style slightly. I usually use the tip of my finger on the tip of the needle to slip a completed stitch off but that’s now a little painful so I’m trying to use the side of the needle tip instead. It’s not uncomfortable but it’s also not quite engrained in my head yet so I’m still occasionally stabbing myself! The Knitpicks options are also a little grabbier than the Addis, which I think is probably a good thing since I sometimes had problems with projects falling off the Addis.

I’m a little disappointed that you don’t appear to be able to join two cables together to form a longer cable (at least not with the set that I got). The cables are sold in lengths of up to 1.5m so I guess I’ll just have to buy longer ones as and when I need them. I’m also a little disappointed that I got the plastic wallet rather than the binder for them but really these are both minor niggles and don’t detract from how pleased I am with the needles in general.

I’m going to take a little longer to test-drive them but am already considering “donating” my existing needles to my sister, at least in the sizes that I have Knit Picks tips for. With a house move on the very near horizon a little decluttering is definitely called for!

The Double Vision project itself is going brilliantly. The photographs that I took didn’t come out well so I’ll try and get some better ones at the weekend. The project is a blanket comprised of 100 squares. Each square is coloured by knitting together two strands of yarn chosen from ten basic colours giving a total of 55 different colours with 45 of these being repeated on the other side of the square. (The ten that aren’t repeated are the squares made by knitting together two strands of the same colour which form the diagonal.)

I really hadn’t appreciated when I decided to knit this pattern just how big a 1.4 m square blanket would be; my brain hasn’t updated from imperial to metric yet. I did want it to be a long-term, relatively mindless project, which is just as well, since that’s exactly what it’s turning out to be! Given that it’s formed of 100 squares with some contrasting edging, it’s very easy to calculate just how far through it I am. So far I’ve knitted 6.5 squares which translates to (very roughly) 6.5%. That’s not bad for 5 nights’ knitting but means that, at this rate, it’ll take me another 62 nights to finish knitting the squares, never mind the edging and the sewing together!

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