Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Ouch and Damn.

I thought I was soooo clever – I bought myself a 12” circular figuring it would be perfect for the sleeves of my hourglass sweater. (Note – I bought this at School Products and managed to leave the store with NO OTHER ITEMS – I consider this a personal triumph.)

Anyway, I got my little circular needle home and tried to cast on for the sleeve. No chance. The needle and yarn kept flying out of my hand, loops popped off the needles, it was disastrous. I cast on using regular needles and then tried to knit a few rounds with the little circular, but similar problems ensued. After about three rounds my hand muscles seized up and refused to go any further.



Do I just have monstrous bear paws, or is it really that difficult to knit a sleeve on a 12” circular needle? Has anyone out there done this successfully? Any tips? If not, I’m headed out tomorrow to buy some size 6 dpns.

9 comments:

Veronique said...

I've done it and hated every minute of it! It was really hard to force the 2 ends of the needle to meet so that I could knit. Ugh.

--Deb said...

No, I can't handle 12" either--too tricky! (Hey, it took me a while to adapt to the 16" for my Olympic sweater--all these years of using 24" or 40" magic-loop needles!) Which, in fact, is my recommendation. Use DPNs or 2-circs or Magic Loop--whichever you'd be inclined to use for socks.

Julsey said...

All I have to say is OUCH! That sounds and looks painful! i'm a big fan of the good ol DPNs...

Ashley said...

I did it! I have actually knitted 3 sleeves so far (that's 1.5 hourglasses) in the 12-ince. At first I thought I was going to die, but when my hands got used to it it went 2x as fast for me as DPNs. Persevere! Hand seizures be damned!

Megann said...

The smallest I've used in the round is 16", and that was a little tricky. I'm not sure I could handle going down to a 12" circ. I hope your hands feel better!

spajonas said...

yeah, i have to say taht 12" is way too small. do you have another circular needle in that size? just do the two circs method. you'll probably find it more comfortable.

Anonymous said...

I struggle with the 16 incher so I can't imagine working with a 12" circular. That must be so frustrating for you after buying a new circular! Congrats on making it out of School Products with no other purchases!

Anonymous said...

I'm doing my sleeves on two circs... much easier. Just go grab another circ in the same size and knit on!

Anonymous said...

I have never tried it but today I purchased two 8 inch circs from
www.worldknit.com. They come in size 6. I've never tried those either but I let you know how they are if you want.