Am I first? Hi, that yarn is so interesting but I'm a terrible knitter and trying not to buy more, more, more. This time change is awful!!! Why do they do it?

You know, you are almost inspring me to take up knitting!

I love the color and the pattern of that yarn...
I wonder if it would make a decent scarf.....

Ha! Ha! You said pants!! (on this side of the pond & in Australia that means underwear!!)
You can tell I work with small children? Really?

btw - fanny is something completely different but not anatomically distant!!!!

Look at the technique in the book "Domiknitrix" for an anti-rolling cast-on. It's pretty effective. :-)

Oh, I would SO start watching MTV again if they ran Yo! MTV Knits!

*generic rant about lack of actual music video programming on music video stations, lamenting loss of pop-up video, and sounding like and old crankypants.*

And that is super-cool sock yarn. :)

Tami, I think it would make a gorgeous scarf, all stripey and lighter than a big bulky piece.

One reason I decided to go with this yarn (aside from the striping, which I love) is that I want a project that is small like this (meaning tiny yarn and needles) so it lasts longer LOL. I want to be able to take it on the bus or if I travel somewhere or whatever and be able to work on it for a good long while but still have it be simple and fast if that makes any sense at all. My berets are fun but I can finish one in a day which means I have to take the DPNS and scissors and markers and all that with me on the bus. So I'm thinking a nice hat in the round on this would take a good while to complete so I get the satisfaction of a still-small project (like a hat) but also more satisfaction of being able to knit on it for a few days or whatever.

I need coffee, clearly.

I've knit socks in that yarn before and its fab and has held up great thru numerous washings. Avoid ribbing if you can, it really takes away from the pattern on the yarn.

I always get a pile of yarn out of the middle of the skein, too. Yarn skeins do not give up their innards gracefully.

You mean yarn comes out nicer than that from the middle????

I would so watch Yo! MTV Knits! That is beautiful yarn. So tempting. So very tempting!

As for the gauge, 10 cm is about 4 inches, so you can tell what the suggested gauge is. Happy knitting!

I was surfing on ravelry one day (okay everyday) and discovered that some call the yarn that comes out from the middle like that "yarn vomit". Not a pretty phrase but very pretty yarn.

(Peering into my crystal ball) I see SOCKS in your future!

Laurie... very cool yarn, love the colors and the pattern it is making. Don't you love sock yarn?? :-) Can't wait to see what kind of hat you end up making.

Metric, la la... seems all the yarns are in metric these days. So, for centimeters to inches... you can either multiply the centimeters by .39 to get into inches. Or, you can do what I do and use the rule that 10cm = ~4inches (this will generally get you close enough, as they always use a 10cm x 10cm square for guage, it seems).

Also... you've come to the 'dark side' of using needles smaller than #5... be careful... it's very addicting. I see socks in your future! :-)

seven stitches to the inch on U.S. 4 needles for sock yarn sounds just about right for a tight knitter. I get 8.5 to 9 spi on U.S. 2 needles for most of my sock yarn and I get a fabric I like very much. I think you'll enjoy the fine knitting. I find it easier on my hands than using big needles.

beware...buying sock yarn is addictive. ask my stash.
;)

Don't the smaller needles make you feel like you are knitting with toothpicks? I look at the size 1s and think that I will never be able to manage something that tiny... itty-bitty little pieces of wood...

(ha ha about the yarn vomit! perfect description.)

Y'know, Laurie, I read you every day and almost never comment because by the time I get to you, 428 people have already said what I planned to say. This time only one each said what I planned to say:

1) That blob from the middle of the ball is indeed known in some circles as "yarn vomit," and

2) I, too, see socks in your future. Give a shout if you want to try some, I can help get you started. After your hat. (After that, size 8 needles will feel like telephone poles to you.)

Do you ever go to WeHo S'n'B anymore? I haven't been in ages.
K.

The ball yarn innards?
Yarn barf.
Make me giggle every time.
I don't even work with small children as an excuse :)

Can I just say, I love the word "teetiny." It makes me smile.

I'm so used to working with 1's and 2's for my socks that anything over a 4 feels like flagpole. I just love working with really fine yarn. It doesn't matter if I'm knitting, spinning, weaving, whatever, I very rarely use anything over sport weight, most often sock weight or finer.

You said: "I want to be able to take it on the bus or if I travel somewhere or whatever and be able to work on it for a good long while but still have it be simple and fast if that makes any sense at all."

That why I knit socks.

The color of your yarn is trippy. I'm saving up to buy yarn from Supercrafty btw...I spent most of this past weekend drooling over her supply (and her baby - even though I don't plan on having any of my own babies). Plus few of my pennies may go toward that cute baby, Evan.

You say you're a tight knitter, but have you ever broken a needle? I'm a really loose knitter and I broke my bamboo circular needles this past weekend...very annoying. So half my scarf is going to be ever so slightly more wider than the other half.

To stop the rolling - after you knit 5 rounds or so (or however much roll you prefer), purl 1-2 rounds then continue knitting. It might affect the pattern a bit, but less than ribbing. Besides, it'll all roll up to the purl anyway and hide it.

As said before, beware the sock yarn. I find it more addictive now than the chunky loves of my former self. And I don't even knit socks...yet...

You can always to a couple of rows of garter stitch to stop the rolling.

You know... you could make socks. My first pair was tube socks. No heels, just knit around until long enough, decrease and close the tube. Kind of like a hat. :D

I would totally watch Yo!MTV Knits!. I would love to see, like, Adam Curry, Kurt Loder, and Jesse Camp knitting together.

I can't wait to see how that yarn knits up into a hat! It's SO pretty!

2 ideas -
the yarn manufacturer probably has a hat pattern
ravelry has a pattern for sure!

I'm glad I'm not the only one who has trouble finding the start of the yarn!

Bossy agrees with you about the Time Change thing. In fact Bossy thinks it's pathetic that her computer and cell phone are lying about the time, while the old analog clock in the bedroom speaks heaps of truth and allows for an extra bit of sleep.

Sending wine now, as a preemtive strike. Mmmm... wine.

I had some sock yarn given to me, but I'm not ready for socks. Maybe a hat...

Here in Ohio, it's yarn barf. It's a regular occurance. Do not think you lack a certain skill.

Yarn barf is why I bought a ball winder. Now I only have to deal with the barf for as long as it takes me to wind it up. :P

To convert from metric, check out http://www.onlineconversion.com/

I use it when I need to convert from one to the other and, as it says, it converts just about anything to anything else. :)

I always have a problem avoiding the yarn puke that happens when I try to fish out the inside end of a skein of yarn. Oh, and one of the benefits of being an engineer is having the Scientific calulator which has a button to convert between inches and centimeters. I've never used that button in my work life, but I always use it to convert in my knitting life! I also use the temp converter when reading canadian or british knitting blogs about temperature!

Oh good golly the TIME CHANGE SUCKS!!!!

Love the yarn.

I also mercilessly rip all the guts out of my yarn skeins. It's really satisfying, in a repressed suburban housewife who wishes she were a ballsy writer/knitter/world traveler who lives in LA kind of way. Was that TMI?

the dreaded yarn barf! It happens to the best of us.
I usually tuck it back in and pretend it didn't happen.
FYI, if someone talks you into buying smaller needles, go metal. I have snapped 2 recently, and I am not a supatight knitter. I am a supatight needle holder, evidently.
p.s. I would watch YO! MTVknits.

Yo yo Laurie! Don't be dissin' on the metric! Word!

I have recently given in and started using metric instead of U.S. measurments. I feel like I'm making faster progress on a project if I'm trying to get through centimeters instead of inches. (I know it's taking the same amount of time, but when you've got to knit 2" aka 5 cm, I prefer to see the centimeters ticking by...)

Peace out!

You could try knitting in the round (double the amount of stitches you want for the width of your scarf - if a scarf is what you are making, and somehow I think it might be)...yes, it will still roll, but at the very end, you will sew the ends together, so it won't roll anymore AND you will have a perfect scarf with no "wrong side."

Roll stoppers include ribbing (unless you really stretch it, a K1, P1 rib shouldn't mess up the patterning too much), garter stitch (this will look very different from stockinet, but might be pretty), and seed stitch, which also might be different but pretty.

You could unwind the yarn from the outside.

But, it would be more efficient to buy a ball winder and take a bit of time to rewind the ball. If you use a winder, don't tension the yarn going into it. Pull off some yarn, wind that much without tension and then pull off some more. Otherwise, you might stretch the yarn, which will unstretch later and ruin your gauge.

I love that yarn! It's going to be a beautiful hat!

I wanted to do a brim that had the same effect as double knitting without the ... actual double knitting. The other treatments I'm thinking of would be a picot edge or some sort of edge that turns under.

Good idea about a longer lasting project. I debate with myself all the time what project to bring due to it's size and accessory needed... after all, that stuff seriously effect my choice of bag/purse and how likely I can actually squeeze my knitting inbetween 2 other subway passengers.

I'm not going to try to convince you to give socks a try, but I will say that simple patterns are actually pretty easy... my first pair was plain stockinette, a worsted weight yarn on size 6 needles and took me 2 weeks.... just enough time to not get bored.

I've been making headbands lately. The hair-restraining type, not the '80s worn-on-the-forehead type. Great way to make something not too much larger than a swatch that will still be useful. They are fast to knit up and quite satisfying. It's great for trying out new yarns or lace patterns... and they work so well with bangs!

I'm sooo glad to see that I'm not the only moron when it comes to getting the damn tail started from the inside of the skein. Not that you're a moron, but sometimes I get so frustrated fishing around in there that I just hook my finger around whatever loops I'm near and yank them out. This is the first I ever admitted it out loud. They say that admitting you need help is the first step...

I'm sure someone already left this tip in the comments, but in case they didn't, if you knit a couple of inches in a needle a couple sizes smaller than you intend, then switch to a larger size, the rolling will stop around where you switch needles.

Venturing into the small needles. Cool.

Your swatch looks really great.

Have fun.
:)

I hates the time change too. And before Easter even! It's indecent!

I'm kind of fond of seed stitch or moss stitch for non-roll brims, if I don't want ribbing. Moss stitch is just seed stitch with two stitches instead of one. Sorta.

(Socks ... socks ... you want to knit socks ... )

Hi everyone in yarnwonderland! Laurie, I love your book, blog and cats! The yarn is very pretty. Yarn barf and Yo Yo MTV knits....makes me smile. P. S. I miss Pop-up Video, too!!

>

Laurie - great minds, and all that! I was thinking, "As soon as I finish reading these comments, I'm gonna tell her a folded-under picot edge will stop all that rolling." :) Susan Lawrence's Lombard Street Socks have a really excellent folded-under picot edge...not that I've knit the second sock yet...but I love the way it turned out on the first sock!

Love that yarn vomit! It happens around here all the time. Good to know there's a name for it. :)

Yeah! How come, even with expensive yarn, you end up eviscerating the ball in order to find the starting end? Sometimes wonder if they think I'll cut that yarn-clot off and need to buy some more expensive yarn to finish the project. Ya think?

I didn't see this mentioned yet, but to stop the rolling edges on the swatch make about 4-6 rows of garter stitch at the top, bottom and sides. It is amazing how it works!

That yarn is pretty - no wonder you couldn't resist!

You could take a look at "More than just socks" - as a compulsive sock knitter myself, I got the book to use up old sock yarn, but she's got a real cute hat pattern that's made in an unconventional way to take advantage of the self-patterning.

heh heh heh heh heh...

Watch out. I've been in that handbasket already. I started knitting socks with sportweight yarn and size 3 needles because I was really really lured by socks but scared of the teetiny needles. After I decided that wasn't too bad (especially when using yarn I dyed myself--joy! rapture! fun!) I slowly started deciding I needed less bulky socks too (I lurve sock options.) and now I'm all about metal size 1's. Thank goodness my knitting leans more to the tight side because me and anything in the 0 class is an ER visit waiting to happen. (With extra knitting of course.)

On your hat, what about a 1x1 ribbing? Just enough to stop the roll without really looking like ribbing? Have lots of fun getting addicted to sock yarn--it's just awesome!

Use your yummy little yarn and little bitty needles to make teetiny baby hats for preemies. Use a lemon or orange as your role model for the baby's head to get the right size/gauge. Donate to the hospital. Good has been done, and you get your yarn fix.

Hey Laurie....lol on the yarn vomit...too descriptive. Yo.Yo on the metric thing I guess you could order a Metric knitting gauge and that would solve the conversion problemo. I have one my Mom left me, it's very handy, I use it along with my 'Susan Bates Knit Chek' thing. I just used size 3 & 4's to make my new grandson some baby uggs...turned out great. You are just too darn cute, my Darling Hubby says that you have found your 'knitch in stitch'...
Love that yarn, looks kinda like Koigu?

I made socks out of this same yarn. Love them!! People think you are oh so clever and talented to be able to knit all those intricate designs. I'm reading your book right now- LOVE IT. It kept me up till 1:00 this morning. Even though I am old enough to be your older sister (or mother) I identified with every word.

In this day and age there are dozens of tools on the internet that make it really easy to convert from metric to imperial measurements. For example:
http://www.diydata.com/information/metricimpconversions/calculator/calculator.php

Metric is the ultimate measuring system for the maths-challenged, as multiplying or diving by 10 is so easy. Just move the decimal point. Whereas in imperial land one has to deal with multiplying and dividing by 12 or 8. This is probably why most of the world (outside America) has embraced the metric system.

Isn't that why "we" do a roll brim hat?

I'm doing this hat pattern on size 7 (I knit tight) needles right now, may not work with your sock yarn,
but a cool pattern to check out and EASY.
http://community.livejournal.com/20sknitters/887731.html
I had to order needles to try your beret pattern, but I've got the yarn and the needles are on the way...
If you are ever in Santa Cruz, I've got lots of wine and yarn...........

Laurie - I just have to state the obvious - Why not make a roll brim hat?? So simple. Cast on the right amount of stitches and just knit. When it is long enough (the rim will roll up ALL BY ITSELF!!)decrease at six places every other row. Twa-la. A hat.

I think the yarn companies wind the ball of yarn
in such a way that it only comes out in a big clump like that. That way they can catch the culprits who use 5 yards of a ball and then try to return it to their local yarn store as an unused ball. In the many decades that I've been knitting, only a few times has it been a simple
clean pulling out of the inside end without knots and clumps. And those times seemed like I should
buy a lottery ticket. But I prefer to knit from the inside of the ball, so the ball sits there quietly rather than bouncing around while I knit
from it.
And while I have your attention, I love your cat pictures!!

I am soooo glad to see I'm not the only one who pulls half the skein out trying to find the end.

That is beautiful yarn; your hat will be gorgeous!

I made a super cute baby sweater with patterned sock yarn. Mixed it up with a few different yarns/patterns. Addictive, this sock yarn, yes.

Yarn vomit sounds so much nicer than yarn poop. That's what I thought when I saw it.

I'm a day behind, but there is a super-easy sock you can make on 12 inch circular needles (Yup, Addi makes 'em)that ANYONE can make. There is no heel - they are knit like a 'tube' sock and are knit in the round with ribbing for the ankle part and stockinette stitch for the foot part. I'd have to e-scan-mail it as the website it came from is no longer available, but it was a free pattern site, if you'd like to try it.

Sorry, I'm babbling.

So - "yo" is the California of "eh?" in Canada? I'm beginning to get it! Around here it's "Oy!" or "Uffdah!" Also - they *call* it "sock yarn" but I have some terrif fingerless mitts made out of that self-patterning stuff. Heck, it's so much fun I've been tempted to just make a long strip about 4" wide for the fun of it! But only - what the HECK would you do with that?? Yarn barf...actually, that's pretty accurate, but "yarn poop" looks more to the point, and whatever it is? OOOooooh yeah. Adds a real Grrrr factor.

I am currently knitting a baby sweater on US 3's and they seem HUGE to me after a couple of pair of socks on 0's and 1's and swatching for gloves on 000's. Hard to think of 4's as teeny or tiny or any mating of those two words. How on earth can you get 7 sts to the inch on 4's with sock yarn???. You must really be a tight knitter all right - if I did that, I'd have lace!

Yo! MTV Knits! -- I'd watch it! And it would obviously reflect a changing MTV demographic...

That happens to me all the time! I had to get a ballwinder.... anyways.. you get used to smaller needles eventually. I started nitting in all 10's and right now I'm making a pair of socks in a size 0 circular :) it really does get easier

I'm in the garter or seed stitch camp. You ideally would want to go down a needle size (ah hah ha ha!) for the garter stitch bit, though you could probably get away with deliberately knitting tighter. Also (being a bit obsessive myself) I'd try and do the edge in the striping rather than patterning bit of the yarn.

By the by, in the spirit of brave travelling, the place I've always wanted to go is San Fransisco. People in the UK tell me it's a ridiculously long way to go for a long weekend, but I laugh in the face of their disbelief (I don't actualy make the trip, but I still laugh!). If I make it that far, LA will seem like a mere hop and a skip - Fancy a glass of wine?

That yarn is knitting up beautifully. Looks much different knitted than in the ball.

Metric is a pain. Looked down at my car weather temp gauge and saw what I thought was "90" did a double take and somehow I'd gone other worldly at 9.0 C. Glad Global Warming isn't making my March 90 degrees F.

Have you seen http://techknitting.blogspot.com/ ? There is a tutorial on hats and the very-stretchy-roll-brim-that-doesn't-look-like-a-roll-brim is very cool. And if you think that was wordy, read the tutorial. Very, very cool. :)

I made a baby hat that had a cute Picot edge and it didn't curl at all. You could try that. All you need to know how to do is a Knitted Cast On. Cast on 6 stitches that way, then take the 4th and 5th stitches that you just cast on and slip them over the last stitch and drop them off the needle. It makes cute little bumps all around the brim.

I don't know if anybody has suggested this yet (because when I start reading the comments, I usually click on the sender name, read thier blogs, click on their blog links and poof! another hour at work has gone by!)If you knit stockinette stich for 6-8 rows and then purl a row on the right side, then go back to stockinette your knitting will fold under at the purled row and you won't have a tiny picot peaks edging but a row of tiny bumps edging.

Ronda - You went metric for knitting? Next thing you know you'll be talking about the colour of your yarn, and pulling it from the centre of skein!

Is there an advantage to pulling the yarn from the inside of the ball, rather than taking the easy way and grabbing the yarn from the outside? I do admit I appreciate seeing the skein "collapse" as I use it up from the inside, but trying to find the beginning inside is like cleaning out the guts when you're carving a pumpkin. Is it worth it?

Yarn barf is so annoying, especially if you get a second barf out of the ball after the first, or it goes all knotty and you get a huge cats cradle to untie. That's usally when I start to believe the yarn is mocking me.

ditto with Tally-here in ohio (pronounced ahia in some parts of the state), it's yarn barf.

Oh, and the procedure you use to GET the center pull going, i.e. sticking your index finger in and searching around--yarn proctology...

:)
Phyllis

I love teeny tiny needles! I have a set of 0000 that I could probably send your way. You could see how much knitting you could get done out of a single strand of hair.

(Umm, yeah, the sock knitting has totally gone to my head. Silly number 1 needles)

Hi - Cast on and MARK THE FIRST ST of the round. Then try knitting about 2" of stockinette, then purl one row, then knit another 2" of stockinette. Next row, k2tog one st from the cast-on edge and one live st from your needle. You'll have the same number of live sts on your needle as when you started, but you'll have a little folded brim for your hat. You can do it in ribbing (multiple of 4, size smaller needle then switch back), longer or shorter or whatever you want. It will lay flat.

Doing this will also make the hat thicker over your ears, which is a plus.

Or, you can simple knit stockinette and let it roll. My favorite hat is like this - it rolls for about an inch and then is nice and smooth.

I would also check out the TechKnitting link. She's a good explainer.

Pretty. I like the colorway. Center pull is always hit or miss with me too.

Haha! That extra yarn always happens to me. I usually call it the yarn barf. Glad to see you've come to the dark side of small knitting. We'll get you on size 0's before you know it.

V. pretty variegated yarn! Socks: start with solid-colored yarn so you can keep your eyes straight! You're inspiring me to go find the third-ever sock I started making, which I gave up in shame and disgust. I'm afraid to go look at it again. Little-needle knitting is fun and pretty. That is, if you aren't an r-tard like me. I made a pair of orange socks for my son, both riddled with scandalously stupid mistakes. Kid thinks they're fabulous and wears them all the time, but only because he's young and not observant. For some reason the toes and heels came out picture-perfect; it was the basic ribbing that I screwed up! So sad.

I am SO glad to see that I am not the only one who fishes for the yarn end instead of winding. I feel much less idiotic now.

You swatch like me too. Measuring after a handful of rows. I think maybe we were separated at birth. :-)

Try knitting a few row of seed stich on the edge - that will keep it from rolling....Knit the purls and purl the knits.

I love your blog - especially the teenage memories, they crack me up! I am too a product of the 80's. My husband cracks up all the time because I'm an 80's rock freak!

Remember that the pattern of this yarn is going to look really different if you use it for a project that has really long rows (lots of stitches). The stripes will be thinner and you won't get as much of the patterning in the gray and white stripes. I went on Ravelry and tried to find projects where people had used it for things other than socks to see what it looks like, but all I could find were socks. Makes nice socks, though -- I was wearing mine last night.

cute yarn!! I think the edge of the hat would look great with something like a 5x1 ribbing, or something like that, a little less traditional of a ribbing. I, too, am a gigantor needle knitter. the smallest I even own are 8's. Can't wait to see the end result. (oh, and I always have to pull out the giant ball of inside goodness to find the freaking end as well....now I know I'm not alone.)

OK - that's IT...I'm going to open up my balls of sock yarn and knit hats and little things. Brilliant. When I don't want that ribbing at the edge of a hat I do a seed or moss stitch. or a variation therof - maybe move the pattern over/back one stitch so it sort of shifts, but isn't real apparent. yarn is so cute!

I love self-patterning yarn and splurged on EIGHT different skeins of Opal sock yarn. http://www.opalsockyarn.com/ The Hundertwasser line is based on paintings and the Rainforest line is based on colors in wildlife. I love it to bits and knit lace scarves out of it instead of socks. I just learned to use dpn's this week so socks may come about eventually! Still, I love having wearable art that people can actually see. I think your hat is a lovely idea.

If you'd like a project that uses less yarn than stockinette and looks GREAT with striping yarns, try Vyvyan Neel's Argosy Scarf. It's simpler than it looks and because it's knit on a bias, the stripes run opposite to the pattern. I made one with Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock and get comments all the time. http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEwinter06/PATTargosy.html

Hooray for new yarn! I really need to use my stash but nothing beats fondling new yarn. Especially alpaca. Delicious!

Knitpicks used to have a free baby sweater pattern on their website. Fortunately I printed it out, the one I made is on my Ravelry page (profile name same as here). Have you ever seen those kids' hats that are basically 2 squares sewn up the sides? That would work with sock yarn, but I like your idea of the picot edge hat. Nice and lightweigth, skinny yarn = more time knitting = DAYS or even WEEKS of knitting enjoyment. But I suspect that the wider the knitting, the thinner the stripes; the striping is calculated for the circumference of a sock.

Oh, that yarn is gorgeous! Good for you for taking on new challenges and knitting on smaller needles! I really can't wait to see the finished product, it knits up so beautifully!

that looks like exactly what happened to my last ball of yarn when i tried to fish out the inside end...hmm, come to think of it, it looks like the same brand of yarn, different colorway, maybe different weight... i am trying like crazy to get past the "yarn vomit" and onto the main ball, almost there. i agree, maybe socks are in your future. a word about it, though. after all the time it takes to complete your first pair, make sure the yarn you chose is really soft, comfy, and something you want to look at!

"Yarn barf" is indeed one term, but ever since I learned the phrase "birthin' the yarn baby," I am no longer crabby about that pile of yarn that emerges. I do, however, knit as fast as I can to use it up, for whatever reason.

And I like rolled-brim hats, so I'm not going to give you any advice on how to stop it from rolling!

Yarn Placenta??

Anyway, unless there's a very obvious end coming out of the middle, I just knit from the outside in.

I had something much worse happen, though. Last week I found some yummy variegated Italian worsted on sale in my LYS - $10 for a huge 540 yd. skein!

So excited, I snapped it up, took it home, and when I took off the band, it wasnt a skein, it was a hank! By that time, I'd pulled an end or 2, cut the little blue binding cord, and I now have 540 YARDS of snarled yarn - AARGH!! I have the two ends wound into balls - only about 3" across each after a week of picking. The rest of the loops I'm forming into little wound up sort of dreadlock balls - it makes a fantastic mint-blue-grey-white fright wig!

My husband very sensibly suggests that for $10, I should go back to the store and start over. Alas, I'm not sensible about such things. Unless it starts to pill and fray too badly to be used, I'll continue to work on it nightly - any
suggestions?

On the plus side, this week I came up with a magical name for a Harry Potter forum that I might want to preemt for myself - what do you think of Arachne Thumbgusset?

Also, got 36 sets of Chinese bamboo needles coming from EBay, that go all the way down to size 1 - more sock knitting to follow.

Laurie,

You're such a bad (good?) influence! Although I have scads of sock yarn already, I went out and bought two more skeins today. One was on my wish list (Opal "Der Blaue Mond"), but the Araucania Ranco Multy was a total impulse purchase. Now it's $38 later and my head is swimming with even more ideas. I really need to finish what's on my needles though.. Unless I buy more needles? :)

If you had told me six months ago that I would be splurging grocery money on fancy yarn, I would have given you such a look. Now I am just happy to have yarn I want to roll around in.

It's going to be all Indecent Proposal at my house tonight.

thanks for making me laugh (again). i am so glad i am not the only knitter that unspools from the inside and ends up with a huge pile of yarn (and then still can't find the end so then give up and end up knitting from the outside anyway.) every time i am hunting for the beginning inside i think i must be the only person that can't find the inside beginning! so gald i am not alone!

Have you thought of using a i-cord? The sweater I just finished called for an i-cord around the neckline and it really is nice. Just a co 3 one.

hahaha! Yarn Barf! WHY AREN'T YOU ON RAVELRY YET, LAURIE? <3 <3 <3