In which Anna is bedeviled by needle sizes.

On my to-do list the day before yesterday was “Cast on Silvanus back”. I pulled out a skein of rosemary Telemark, a pair of size eight straight needles (remember this bit) , checked the pattern, cast on 83 stitchs, checked the pattern again and realized that it called for size 7 needles.

Not being one to waste an accurate cast on, and figuring that it’s not a big deal if my cast on row is a size larger, I open my needle case to get out the size 7 circular I knit the front on. It’s not there. I ponder this for a moment, and remember rushing to finish up the front of Silvanus so I could cast on SnowDrop.

This gives me pause – first because SnowDrop is on size six needles (which I notice as I hold it, pondering the possibility of putting it on a stitch holder) and second, because I don’t really want to put SnowDrop onto a stitch holder so I can finish Silvanus.

I must have used the size sixes to help compensate for the gauge change between my yarn and the pattern yarn, I finally decide. I check the needle case for a pair of size six straights. I don’t have one. Nor do I have a second size 6 circular.

No problem , I’m going to Joanne’s tomorrow anyways to get red yarn – I’ll just pick up another size six while I’m there. I remember to check the pattern to get the metric size for the needle (completely failing to recall that I’m using a *different* needle), because at Joanne’s it’s easier to find the needles by the metric size then the american sizing. 4.5 mm. I’m set.

I get to Joanne’s, buy my yarn and my needle, come home, sit down to work on Silvanus, check my pattern, confirm that I have the right needle size, and then remember that in this instance the right needle size is actually the wrong needle size.

I sigh, think to myself “At least this will make a funny blog entry” and put Silvanus away until I can get the right needle size for it.

That was yesterday.

This story isn’t over yet.

Today, I get online to make a funny blog post about my needle issues, and I load up flickr to get pictures of SnowDrop and Silvanus on the same needle so I can say “Can you see what’s the same in these two pictures?”, then rant amusingly about my general incompetence in needle management.

Except it doesn’t look like the same needle.

I study both pictures closely, and sure enough, that size six bamboo needle in SnowDrop is not the same needle I see in Silvanus. I go back to the original entry on Silvanus when I started knitting it, hoping for a better picture and maybe, just maybe, I made a note about what needle size I was using.

Right there in the first paragraph I read this:

Telemark is a good yarn for this, but its finer then the Coldharbour Mill Aran called for. I’ve sized up to size eight (5mm) needles, since my solitary pair of size 7 (4.5mm) is committed to dishcloth knitting right now.

Advertisement