In the last post I told you about my desire to knit my first sweater, and you’ve encouraged me to try it! Getting the materials, though, has turned out to be quite a problem.
You might remember that I got this lovely Options Sunstruck Wood Interchangeable Needle Set by KnitPicks recently. I love it, but KnitPicks doesn’t make interchangeable needles any smaller than US4 (3.5mm), and I need a US2.5 (3.00mm). I don’t want to buy any more fixed circulars — they don’t make sense when you can combine your interchangeables endlessly — so I had to hunt down something that would do.
Knitter’s Pride and KnitPro have the size I need, AND I’ve read that they both share a manufacturer with KnitPicks and are therefore interchangeable with each other! Knitter’s Pride, however, only has 3.00mm needles in some sort of metal, and I don’t like metal needles. The solution is KnitPro’s Symphonie needles, which are exactly the same as KnitPicks Harmony needles but come in smaller sizes! The next problem is that nobody sells KnitPro in the US, so I turned to ebay! There’s a seller that has what I need, and to me it’s worth the price of $14 (counting shipping and handling). Now I’m just deciding whether I want to get the regular length needles, which are 5 inches long, or the shorter needles, which are 3.5 inches long. The short ones might be more versatile in the future (i.e. with short cables), but would they be too short to hold comfortably? [***EDIT: I got the longer needles, and I got them in 3.00mm and 3.25mm, just in case I need to adjust for gauge. Once S&H was added it was about $30.***]
To summarize, if you live in the US and need smaller needles for your KnitPicks wood interchangeables, search for KnitPro on ebay and get some from an international seller. I hope that’s useful to someone — it took me forever to figure all of this out! That’s like 3 problems solved! Bam!
Now, for the yarn. I’m going for the Stylecraft Special 4 Ply (I’d need about $16 worth of this acrylic yarn). It’s cheap, which sorta makes up for the cost of the needles, and acrylic will be plenty warm for South Carolina. Here are the colors I’m leaning towards:
Parchment for the main color
Pale Rose for the accent color
or maybe Raspberry for the accent color
[***EDIT: I got Silver and Raspberry!***]
I also chose this yarn because I think I may have a bit of a wool allergy. It’s making me a little upset. When I was in Dublin I wore a lovely new 100% alpaca chartreuse crocheted hat and another knitted hat made of 40% wool, and they both made my skin itchy where they touched my forehead. It wasn’t an immediate thing, but after wearing them for about 4 hours I had to take them off. Then again, I wore a sweater today with a little bit of wool and it was fine… Hmmm…
It just wouldn’t surprise me if I was allergic — I’m allergic to EVERYTHING. My allergist did that test where he pricks your back with different allergy-causing substances, and the only thing I wasn’t allergic to was cockroaches. Aside from being upset that I was allergic to so many things, I was a little pissed that my doctor put cockroach juice under my skin without telling me first.
Anyway, if you’ve read this far I thank you for your time. Sorry the post was so long — I just had a lot to talk about today. Hope you come back soon!
not your average crochet 
I just want to say that you are young and sometimes you outgrow your allergies. I did.
Boo
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Really? That’s awesome!
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I don’t have any allergies but I just can’t stand the feel of wool on my skin, so I know how you feel. I would even choose not to knit or crochet with wool, but sometimes I have to! Maybe it’s just as well I don’t have expensive taste.
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Haha yeah that’s a perfect combo. I like the feel of the expensive stuff (cheaper wool is rough to me) but I guess I’ll be saving money on yarn starting now.
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Sorry you had such a difficult time with your needles. But it sounds like it’s all worked out and once you get them you will be ready to get started on your first sweater! This is exciting! I love the colors you chose. And I like all 3 colors shown above together. Makes a great combination.
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Thanks! I think it will be worth the trouble, for sure. 🙂
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Looks like a beautiful project! Love the colors.
I have the same reaction to wool. I just tell myself that the wool is itchy. and use some sort of lining for hats and other layers under sweaters.
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Now why didn’t I think of lining the stuff I’ve already made? That’s a great idea, thanks!
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I agree wool is itchy stuff. I know that people grow out of allergies but I seem to be getting more as I get older! Hope Little J grows out of his. I got some pale rose in DK when choosing colours for the CAL then decided not to use it but it is a gorgeous colour (and I don’t like pink!) sort of an antique pink. Raspberry looks very juicy too!
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More allergies? That’s terrible! I hope yours go away again. I ended up getting the raspberry because I’m not really a pink person either, and while I agree it’s gorgeous and antique-y, I just wasn’t sure if I wanted to wear it. 🙂
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The raspberry looks yummy.
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Love your post. I am a relatively new knitter. I have been growing my collection of Knitter’s Pride Cubics Interchangeable Needles. I am quite satisfied, so far. I haven’t found the need for very small needles yet, so I am glad for anyone else’s experience. Thank you!
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Thanks! I’m glad it may help you. Those Cubics ones look strange — do they feel better in your hands?
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They are certainly different. I am not sure about ‘better’. But, they are very nice! I love the wood look and feel.
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