Post 75, Pomatomus Revived

When you have nothing to do, you can get alot done. I woke up this morning and seriously had nothing to do, no list of errands or a desire to go anywhere. I almost went to see a movie and the thought, Eh, not today. I did make a quick visit to Joann's to get some fabric on sale for a neighbor, some icky acrylic yarn to make some more Coral Reef Hyperbolic space examples and then dashed over to Target for some odd bits. Before and after my quick trip I had the Pomatomus reincarnated into this:
I'm totally in love with this yarn. I picked it up on a whim at Knit1 a year or so and really hadn't thought about it since, until last night. When picking out new trial yarn I really didn't want to have to wind it up into a ball. I used to buy yarn and if didn't come in a ball I would wind it up as soon as possible, now I prefer to leave it in a lovely little twisted skein and let it stew for awhile. So last night when I was digging around in my sock yarn drawer I came across this Trekking XXL, color 100. This is a very unusual yarn, it has a subtle color change that is not produced by space dying like what you might see in a Regia type yarn.

Up close the yarn is actually a four ply yarn with every ply being a different color that subtlety changes shade and even with that each ply changes color by the way it was spun, not dyed, I think. Talk about going the extra step. I don't know if all of their sock yarns are made like that but it really works when knitting a lace pattern and wanting some color changing yarn. This time around the pattern in the Pomatomus really pops. I had originally made a swatch sample using my usual size 0-1 needles and it had a really nice feel, like real store bought socks, but the gauge was too dense. I upped the needle size to a 2.75 MM, and while it is a little looser and fits the pattern requirements, given the twisting of the knit stitches it won't really matter. When it comes to the foot I think I will go down to size 0's to give the sole that yummy department store sock feel. Oh and another thing, about my new DPN sock needles, I read about the Knit Picks new sock needle set on the Yarn Harlot's blog, so of course I really wanted to try them. I love them! It's taken me awhile to loosen my grip on the needles, they were starting to hurt my hands, now I know why I bend my bamboo's. I've also realized I miss the sound of knitting needles and these make a very subtle clicking sound, so old fashioned.

The only problem I have with these needles is that they are so close in size, literally down to a .25mm difference. If you don't close that snap nice and tight when those needles spill out you're going to have a difficult time matching the sizes again. I think I correctly figured out the right sizes, I'll have to double check and if satisfied I'll mark them somehow, maybe nail polish dots?