All the pieces for Bridie are complete and I’m knitting the button bands on the asymmetrical front.
Finishing requires my full attention, so I wanted to have a small project that would be easy to start and stop and carry in my bag. Haven – a scarf from Heartfelt The Dark House Collection by Kim Hargreaves looked like the perfect project. I pulled skeins of Rowan Cocoon in Tundra from my stash and went searching for 8 mm needles. I found a bamboo pair but after casting on the required number of stitches they were decidedly too short. I glanced at the vase of my Grandmother’s needles – heavy straight sticks in every color, size and length, but none in the size I needed. I really wanted to start this project, so I cast on using 6.5 mm needles. I knit two repeats of the lace pattern and wasn’t completely satisfied. No surprise that my gauge was off and the stitches looked forced and uncomfortable. I put the knitting aside and picked up a book to read for the rest of evening. A few pages in I remembered a drawer full of my Grandmother’s circular needles, each stored in a plastic bag with the number written on the outside. I was in luck and quickly found an 8 mm circular needle. I grabbed a new skein of Cocoon and cast on. After one repeat it was clear that this was the size required to create a scarf with big, soft stitches. It’s comforting to work with the same needles that my Grandmother once used – they are a bit louder than my addi’s, but it’s a pleasant sound, the sound of needles clicking.