It broke

My lovely needle snapped in the middle of a round. Clean through, it gleamed ruby red with the light gleaming through. It was a size five and the needle sliding through the stitches on my Kauni.

Broken Needle

It had been such a lovely morning, with Kristin and Ebony coming over for a Knit together. I got to see their great knitting and relax with coffee and muffins.

And then it happened, not 20 minutes after they left. Snap! Did I mention that it was a size 5 US? I normally do not use US sizes, but this one seemed just perfect, the stitches sliding along the glass and the colour so lovely. Tins I have of needles, metric and US, but circulars? Those it seems I have only in metric. Looking for the 3,5mm – I could only find 60 cm or less.

It was time for a break outside.

In the middle of my pink flowers, I have one branch of purple. And the bush full of white on the other side of the terrace.

Purple FlowerBush of white flowers

Kauni

Taking a deep breath, I checked every single last flipping needle of the 3,5 and 4,0 variety. I even took out the set of Denises and checked them. Nope, the 5s barely cleared the 4,0 on my needles gauge. In the last place I looked (well, duh!) there was one last hard wood needle. It seemed to be too big for a 3,5 and a bit too little for the 4,0. I am calling it a US size five even though it clearly says something else. It is my needle and I need it to be the right size to not mess up my gauge. It is 3,75 I insist.

After that, I knit another 10 rows, quite pleased with the feel of the ebony needle. The point is not as nice, but the join is better. And it looks even better when I don’t have it bunched up. Elegant even!

-Holly

About Holly

fiber person - knitter, spinner, weaver who spent 33 years being a military officer to fund the above. And home. And family. Sewing and quilting projects are also in the stash. After living again in Heidelberg after retiring (finally) from the U.S. Army May 2011, we moved to the US ~ Dec 2015. Something about being over 65 and access to health care. It also might have had to do with finding a buyer for our house. Allegedly this will provide me a home base in the same country as our four adult children, all of whom I adore, so that I can drive them totally insane. Considerations of time to knit down the stash…(right, and if you believe that…) and spin and .... There is now actually enough time to do a bit of consulting, editing. Even more amazing - we have only one household again. As long as everyone understands that I still, 40 years into our marriage, don't do kitchens or bathrooms. For that matter, not being a golden retriever, I don't do slippers or newspapers either. I don’t miss either the military or full-time clinical practice. Limiting my public health/travel med/consulting and lecturing to “when I feel like it” has let me happily spend my pension cruising, stash enhancing (oops), arguing with the DH about where we are going to travel next and book buying. Life is good!
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3 Responses to It broke

  1. Marit says:

    Love the colours of that Kauni!

  2. Ebony says:

    I’m so sorry to see that your needle broke! They were beautiful, too.

    Next time I will remember to bring some lace. For some reason, my blog never sent your comment!

  3. Laura says:

    Hello again! Thought I’d drop by for a quick visit.

    Love, love, love the Kauni!

    And terrible bummer about the needle–i don’t think I’ve ever seen one like that before. Very glad you found a workable substitute. I’m pretty sure I have one that size if you find the sub isn’t working for you. MPS seems to go pretty quickly from here.

    I love the chainlink, too–very cool, and your yarn really shows off the design.

    One more repeat and then I can start the border on the Rose Trellis shawl. Then convertible mittens I’m working on are coming out a bit big (hey, that happens when you forge ahead not heeding guage) but a bit of felting will make them fit and warmer.

    Not that I really need them in the heat here….

    Happy knitting!
    Laura

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