Knitting Socks and Working on New Patterns

Up until now I’ve always knitted my socks on 40 cm dpns, but they are not very portable as they always tend to stick out of my bags. Plus, if I'm sitting next to someone, I tend to accidentally poke them with my needles, which is not good! So I’ve tried out knitting socks on smaller dpns recently. I find that my usual knitting style (I’m a ‘thrower’) is not an option when I’m using smaller dpns, it just doesn’t work for me. So I've been trying out knitting continental style, holding the yarn in my left hand, when I’m using the shorter dpns.

I’m still working on trying out the best way to use my hands and how to use the yarn, and knitting this way is still way slower than my speed using the english method with long needles, but I’m making progress. And I really want to be able to knit socks on short dpns, so that my sock knitting projects become more portable and I can take my sock knitting with me to all kinds of places and activities.

So these past couple of days I have been working on a sock in my old way (with 40 cm dpns, and ‘throwing’ my yarn with the right hand) and besides that I’ve also practised knitting socks on 20 cm dpns using the continental method. I’ve tried this both on 20cm metal dpns, and on 20 cm bamboo dpns, and for sock knitting I found that I prefer the metal dpns over the bamboo dpns.

Apart from sock knitting, I've also been knitting on two other projects. The first project is finished, but I haven't finished working out the pattern yet, I need to check that one last time before I publish it (it will be another free pattern).

The second project that I've been working on is also from a new pattern. For part of this project I have been using this beautiful 'Dutch Palettes' yarn by Loret Karman. The shades that I'm using are inspired by the Sunflower paintings by Vincent van Gogh, and I think they are gorgeous. The project itself looks great too, I think, but I'm only about halfway through at the moment. I'll be able to show you the final result in a week or two, I hope...