secrets de grand-mère

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I've been wanting this knitting book, Omas Strickgeheimnisse, for quite some time and finally got my hands on one. :-) You can see it above with some sock yarn in my favorite colors. You can see the other 11 colors here, also beautiful colors, but the purples are my fave.

This is definitely a fine addition to my stitch dictionary collection. My Barbara Walker Treasuries, Harmony Guides, and other books all shifted to make room and welcomed this newcomer amicably. Flipping through the pages of this book brings me joy. It is mostly filled with lace . It doesn't have a whole lot of what I'm into (cables) or even plain knit/purl stuff. I will face some challenges if I ever attempt to use this book as it is written completely in German and charts only (not that row-by-row instructions in German would help me). One more thing. The chart symbols are unlike the more familiar ones I am accustomed to (viz. BW & HG).



We recently switched from Comcast (cable tv company) to this Direct TV (dish tv company). Besides a roughly 30 USD (not counting "mystery" charges that are always tacked onto the bill) monthly savings, I was really expecting them to be same shishkabob different texture.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I now get BBCA, which I did not get with my "peasant" cable channel lineup before. Yay! So in theory, this means I should finally get a chance to watch this Doctor Who spinoff, Torchwood (UK link here) which I've been wanted to watch for a long time. Unfortunately, I didn't see the show coming down the pike in the next couple of weeks so I guess we're off season right now. Boo.

However on the upside, I did discover that I can finally watch this British car show, Top Gear. I love this show, it is such a hoot to watch due to the highly amusing British commentaries that you don't find in American car shows.

Now I need to figure out what other shows I should watch on BBCA... suggestions?

Update: 14Mar2009 post

There's a bit of disappointment about the Knit Picks Options set I got in December. No no, nothing wrong with the needle tips or cords themselves. I'm talking about the zipper bag that came with the set. The zipper broke apart. It wasn't the denticular part or the zipper pull tab. It was the small part that slides back and forth (see photo above).

The breakage came as a surprise to me since I hadn't had the bag very long and it only had very light usage. I've probably opened/closed it less than 10 times. I've never had a zipper break on my this way before -- not in any of my toddler's clothing, or with any of my own bags or clothing, and they've all gotten way more wear and abuse than my new Knit Picks Options plastic bag.

The left part should connect to the right part where the green and blue arrows point.

There was a small piece broken off where the red arrow points that should connect to the left part to complete the "loop" to hold the zipper pull tab. I don't know where that very small piece went, prolly fell on the floor and crawled under the sofa to join the dust bunnies and whatever crumbs my toddler dropped on the floor.

I couldn't leave all the contents in the plastic bag now, with the bag wide open. Let's not tempt fate here. I can already see my toddler inverting all the contents onto the floor! So off I went for a makeshift Knit Picks Options set holder. I fished out an old zippered CD case that had the capacity to hold 20 or so CDs and put all my Knit Picks Options tips & cables into it. It's not exactly the best solution, but it will do. The tips are pretty snug when they lay horizontally and won't slip out.

I am happy with my Knit Picks Options needles. I am using the 8 mm (US11) needles for the red cable bag handle, and the 5 mm (US8) for my SIL's St. Albans Valentine Cable Scarf. The only trick is making sure I screw them on tight, cuz I've had them unscrew/loosen on me while knitting.

Copyright © Smariek Knits 2005-2009. All full copyright rights are reserved by Smariek Knits.

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Faster than 299,792,458 meters/seconds

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Well almost. It sure was quick though!

Do you remember when I mentioned placing my very first Knit Picks order? (See 27 Nov 2008 post) I was extremely disappointed to find the one item I was looking forward to playing with ASAP turned out to be on back order.... until Dec 23rd! That would be the Nickel Plated DPN set. The website did not mention anything about a back order when I placed the order last week. Everything else appears to have been shipped.

On the flip side, I was pleasantly surprised to find a box from them today. I was expecting them to take much longer with the order. It wasn't the entire order (minus the DPN set). I guess they are shipping the rest of the items separately.

This is what I received in the box today. It is the Knit Picks Options nickel plated interchangeable circular needle set.

This is what I found when I opened up the plastic bag. The bag on the left is the storage bag. The small square one at the top is for the cables.

These are the needle tips. All bound with some loose elastic to a piece of cardboard. I'm not sure if you can see the size markings on the cardboard. It would seem to me that the best place to keep the needles would be on this cardboard so that you know what size needle tip you have. Unfortunately the cardboard does not fit into the organizer bag. Hmmm. I guess I will just have to remove all the needle tips and place each size in its own pocket in the organizer bag.

I did order a needle gauge, it hasn't arrived yet. I guess the needle gauge will live in the organizer bag so I can verify needle size.

Turn that package over and you'll find the cables and some mysterious objects which I have yet to figure out. However I can already tell that there is high likelihood for losing small parts. Need to figure something out to minimize that potential.

I guess I need to find out what other owners of the KP Options set do to keep everything organized...


Shirley's Mom recently passed away after a battle with cancer, and her younger sister is crazy, nutter, brave to do a solo skydive in February 2009 to raise funds for the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation. To help raise funds for her target goal of £1000, Shirley has organized a prize draw. There are some yarny/knitty prizes. Check out her blog post for more details.

Copyright © Smariek Knits 2005-2008. All full copyright rights are reserved by Smariek Knits.

Circular Needle Storage

I finally got fed up with keeping all my circular needles in one big pile. It was difficult to find specific needle sizes. So I picked up one of those expandable folders to keep like sizes together. I've only had this for a few days so can't say this will work out for me in the long run, but I have the feeling that it will. I like how it doesn't take up too much space.

I was trying to decide between red, blue, or purple. Eventually went with purple. I guess I like that color. I also seem to have a lot of purple yarn in my stash. Whenever I buy yarn I somehow tend to gravitate towards the purples.

I've discovered that I need more 4.5 mm (US7) needles. I was looking for one (to start yet another WIP) the other day and was disappointed to find that the two I have are already being used (one for the Flower Basket Shawl, the other for a basketweave scarf).

Needle Inventory

I finally got around to doing an inventory of my Circular Needles. I didn't realize how many US1 needles I had! Looks like I could really use a US9 needle. The reason for so many duplicate sizes is that I need pairs of circs for knitting in the round (hats, socks), and I always have needles in use stuck on WIPs. Here's an enumeration of my Circular Needle collection (sorry, I can't figuure out how to get it to line up):

US Size mm Size Length inch Length cm
0 2 (1 of 2) 40 100
0 2 (2 of 2) 40 100
1 2.25 (1 of 2) 16 40.5
1 2.25 (2 of 2) 16 40.5
1 2.25 (1 of 5) 24 61
1 2.25 (2 of 5) 24 61
1 2.25 (3 of 5) 24 61
1 2.25 (4 of 5) 24 61
1 2.25 (5 of 5) 24 61
1 2.25 29 80
1 2.25 (1 of 5) 29 80
1 2.25 (2 of 5) 29 80
1 2.25 (3 of 5) 29 80
1 2.25 (4 of 5) 29 80
1 2.25 (5 of 5) 29 80
2 2.75 12
2 2.75 (1 of 2) 24 61
2 2.75 (2 of 2) 24 61
2 2.75 (1 of 4) 29 73.5
2 2.75 (2 of 4) 29 73.5
2 2.75 (3 of 4) 29 73.5
2 2.75 (4 of 4) 29 73.5
2 2.75 32 80
3 3.25 24 61
3 3.25 (1 of 2) 24 61
3 3.25 (2 of 2) 24 61
3 3.25 (1 of 4) 29 73.5
3 3.25 (2 of 4) 29 73.5
3 3.25 (3 of 4) 29 73.5
3 3.25 (4 of 4) 29 73.5
3 3.25 (1 of 4) 32 81
3 3.25 (2 of 4) 32 81
3 3.25 (3 of 4) 32 81
3 3.25 (4 of 4) 32 81
4 3.5 16 40.5
4 3.5 24 61
4 3.5 (1 of 3) 29 73.5
4 3.5 (2 of 3) 29 73.5
4 3.5 (3 of 3) 29 73.5
4 3.5 (1 of 3) 32 81
4 3.5 (2 of 3) 32 81
4 3.5 (3 of 3) 32 81
5 3.75 29 73.5
5 3.75 32 81
6 4 29 73.5
6 4 29 73.5
6 4 32 80
6 4 32 81
6 4 36 91.5
7 4.5 32 80
7 4.5 40 100
8 5 29 73.5
8 5 30
8 5 32 80
8 5 32 80
10 6 24 61
10 6 36
10.5 6.5 29 73.5
10.5 6.5 36
15 10 29 73.5