The Point

See, I'm knitting these socks...

They're in a merino / tencel 50:50 blend so the yarn is a bit grabby, and there are some interesting stitch manipulations required. Because of this I need pointy but slippery needles. Apparently that's not easy to find.

Above we have a bunch of my 2.25mm sock needles.

On the far right are the Knit Picks circulars, which are the pointiest by far but unfortunately much too grabby. At least in my hands, the finish wears off these needles pretty quickly - you can see some gold showing through in the top of the picture - and once the needles are dull silvertone / goldtone the stitches are really hard to move along them.

Moving to the needle 2nd from the right, you see a pair of Hiya Hiya steel needles. These are some of my favorites because they're nice and slippery and pretty pointy - but in this case not *quite* pointy enough.

The next one to the left is an Addi Turbo. Strangely it seems to be about the same pointiness as the Hiya Hiya needle - but not pointy enough. Nice and super slippery though!

And on the far left, we have my brand new Addi Lace needle. These are unfortunately not as slippery as the regular Addis, which caused me to agonize about whether it was worth buying them. I had a pair years ago, but my skin and the brass didn't get along and the needles would get very tarnished and smell funny, so I ended up giving them to a friend. I'd heard that they have a new coating and hoped this would help with that issue. So far so good - they're certainly pointy enough.

And now some other socks I'm knitting, these ones out of my handspun. They also happen to be on my very favorite type of sock knitting needle: Inox Express. Unfortunately they come in 2.5mm but not 2.25mm. The perfect blend of slippery and pointy, but alas, not the right size.



These socks were supposed to be knit on my Boston to Seattle cross-country move in the U-Haul, but unfortunately due to a last minute packing mishap (my designated container of things to come with me in the truck cabin accidentally got put in a box and packed in the back) that was not to be. It's a little sad that it has taken me this long to get going on them!

Listening to: The Drapery Falls ~ Opeth