Sunday, March 2, 2008

My new cable needle

First of all...a little instructional bit for the non-knitting readers who read this blog...all four of them. The rest of you may skip down below the line for the actual adventure.

Righto - the bent needle on the right is a cable needle. The obsessive types who prefer to make their own sweaters instead of doing the sane thing and buying them from the store use needles like this...

...to make these (photo blatantly stolen from here and they use a different style cable needle in this drawing but you get the pciture):

Okay - short tutorial is now over.

____________________________________


Now personally, I am not a big fan of the cable needle. It takes no small amount of dexterity to manage it, the cable needle flops around in front or in back of your knitting...etc. etc. Plus I like the idea of extreme cable knitting - letting those stitches hang out in space for a few moments and risking it all.

Seriously though. The universe, it appears, has something different in mind. The universe seems to think I need a cable needle.

On Saturdays the kids have music lessons. Unfortunately, the place where they have lessons does not have a waiting room. Also, the kids do not have lessons at the same time. This means I get to hang out in the car with whichever child is not in a lesson for that half hour. I had just come back to the car after sending Alex off. It seems Madeline generously put my bag with my knitting and my book on the front seat so I would have them.

In my bag were four of these - beloved sock needles (el cheapo Aero 2.75mm for the detail-oriented)

Even though I SAW the bag, for some reason I figured I would pull the bag out from behind me AFTER sitting down.
When I regained consciousness* - I had a new cable needle. Plus a hole in my jeans and a very sore behind.
So its true. You too can make your very own cable needle. All you need is your ass.
*In my defence I did not actually lose consciousness. After the searing pain I caught my breathe long enough to squeal "Get it out! Get it out" to Madeline.
Edited to add: No worries - Tetanus booster is up to date.


6 comments:

Anonymous said...

OUCH!!!!!! that hurts just looking at it.
btw, saw someone on tv last night with a shawl/poncho type object on and fell in love with it. was so excited i phoned you but no answer - am motivated to actually try knitting it (!?!) and may need quick cast on assistance/yarn purchase assistance/reminder lesson during your next visit. since my last knitting project was in my late teens.
scared? rightly.

Leanne said...

omg That is too funny. And even scarier - I once had a very similiar experience with a 2mm dpn on the couch. Except not with my ass. Oh no. When I did it, the needle went between my legs and lodged into a rather sensitive area about an inch north of a really sensitive area. It drew blood (just a drop, but that's not the point!)

Maybe knitting needs to be reclassified as an extreme sport :-)

Goes to show - always keep your tetanus shots current!

Anonymous said...

Ouch! I guess that this is a one time thing, and you won't be making cable needles to sell on Etsy? :-)

Knit My Grits said...

It took 2 hours to remove the snow from that post I put on the blog. Today? It took 4.5 hours - constant and never ending. I have some pics and a movie from the endeavour on our street this morning that I'm going to put up a post for. The entire neighbourhood was out at 10 am. this morning after (no doubt) a high protein breakfast.

Five Ferns Fibreholic said...

I think that we should start a support group for those who have experience knitting injuries. What we suffer for our art!!!

Anonymous said...

Okay, I'm in serious BLOG WITHDRAWAL!!! I hope the reason you haven't been blogging is that everything is SO perfect there's nothing to write about, and you're knitting too fast to type :) See you soon!!