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Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Learning Things

So, I've been off air for about a week, courtesy of various technical glitches and the humans who are paid to fix them for me . . . I learned a bit more about my computer and what makes my internet connection work--or not. As for the lessons in patience, I'm not sure that I would have chosen to practice that virtue if I had the choice.
Meanwhile I'm still an enthusiastic newbie sock knitter. I thought I'd branch out into something a little more challenging and exciting. This was an impulse buy.



















Noro Sekku is 50% cotton, 17% wool, 17% nylon, 16% silk. It was on display as a possible sock wool and despite the fact that there was no knitted swatch available I decided to give it a go. That turned out to be not such a good idea. It's an unbalanced single and despite the promised strength from the nylon content, it breaks very easily. It also twists and catches on itself--not a good combination when knitting on 2 mm needles. Nor are the lovely thick slubs that show up reasonably often. And the wool content isn't enough to give the yarn any elasticity. The big cuff you can see in the pic only just fits over my heel to tug onto my ankle. Once there I'm not sure that it would stay up. It quickly became a "sample" and I've reallocated the yarn. It will be an interesting scarf knit on somewhat bigger needles. Hopefully it will be great and I'll end up a happy little knitter again. Meanwhile it's good to be back on air.

6 comments:

Vireya said...

Congratulations on being back on the air!

Sharon said...

Lovely to 'see' you again. Was checking in every day and, although commiserate with your IT dramas, am thrilled that your absence wasn't more serious. Sending warm fuzzy IT wishes from Canberra....

Chiara Z said...

Thanks and thanks! I'm fine and the internet is being "monitored" by engineers somewhere where they have interesting accents:)

Dee said...

welcome back. I missed your daily posts.
that yarn looks good with its variation, pity it doesn't live up to its not suitable for socks. The blend at lest sounds as if it may be nice against the skin.

Knitspingirl said...

Welcome back from me too!
I've developed a love/hate relationship with Noro. Love the pretty colours & long colour shifts. Hate the twisty, twirly way in bunches up in your hands & the slubs always seem to rear their heads at the most inopportune moments. If all else fails, I'm told it felts reasonably well ...

Chiara Z said...

Thanks:) felting it really would be a last resort, but I guess it's always good to have a last resort . . .