Dear – well. I don’t know who’s done it, but it’s clear someone has. I started the very nice February Lady sweater on straights, as is my preference, and now that I’m a ways along, it’s obvious to me that I’m going to have to switch to a circular. I’m running out of room, which is a very good reason to use a circular and temporarily suspend my belief that straights are better all the time.
I any case, I went to the circular needle storage thingie (I have this one) and was surprised to see only one totally crappy, dented, scratched and short needle in 4.5mm. “Huh” think I, because that’s totally weird. 4.5mm is an oft used size here. I stood there staring at the spot where they should all be until it occurred to me that it must be that I use them so much that they didn’t get put away. Yup. For sure. I close the closet and go over to the stash bin that sits by my desk, where recently used circulars are hung on the handle, waiting for the urge to put them away to come over me. (It has been a while.) There’s a gauge on my desk, and I start sizing them, looking for one of the multitude of 4.5mm circulars I own.
Not a single one. None of the needles hanging there are 4.5mm. There are several 4mm, a couple of 5mm, but not a single 4.5, which is way gone to crazyville. Totally insane. I’ve been knitting for 36 years and I admit, I don’t care for circs, but it’s not like I shun them when it’s right to use them. I’m stubborn and set in my ways… not STUPID. This place should be filthy with them. Where in the name of merino wool could they be? I start rifling through all of my project bags, suddenly and entirely convinced that the many, many 4.5mm circular needles must be in stuff I’m already knitting. I mean, I can’t think of anything off the top of my head, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t there. I shred the upstairs room, maul through the living room baskets, dump out the closet in my office and all the bins nearby. I find a lot of interesting things (really. I have a lot on the go. I should get back to some of these bad boys) and I do not find a SINGLE 4.5mm circ. (I do, however, find many projects on 4.5mm straights. It’s like being taunted.)
I am about to throw an entirely juvenile temper tantrum when I remember something. I keep one of those Knit Picks interchangeable sets (with both wood and metal) in my suitcase for knitting emergencies. I bolt up the stairs, open my suitcase, and start flipping though the sleeves, which I have intelligently labelled for just these occasions… That’s when I see it. To quote my Quebecois friend Jéan, “I look in the package and there it was… Gone.” That sleeve is empty. There is no 4.5mm tips in either wood or metal, which absolutely clinches it.
Clearly, someone has broken into my house and stolen all of the 4.5mm circular needles in an attempt to drive me wild with frustration (congratulations, by the way) and provoke exactly this sort of response. There’s probably some hidden camera somewhere, and the perpetrators are sitting in an unmarked van with a whole bunch of wool, a tangled mound of my 4.5mm circulars and are, even as I type, laughing themselves sick, falling about gasping for air and pointing helplessly as I rip up the house. I’m sure that they’re knitters who just love circulars. Adore them even, and this wee jaunt is some sort of retribution for the things I’ve said in the past about their needle of choice. “We’ll show her” they thought. “She’ll see the glory and the light of the one true needle” and they plotted this day, lo many moons ago, knowing that eventually, something wouldn’t fit on a straight and I’d go crying to the needle case. How they must have clapped their hands and bounced in their seats, seeing that I was going to knit February Lady, calculating my gauge and reading the pattern. “An XS in Aran weight yarn!” they cackled, “That will never fit on a straight!” and they imagined their vindication as I was forced to admit that this time, this time, only a circular would do.
Yeah, it was a masterful plan, an adept strategy, a most satisfying tactic. Oh, the hours they must have waited. Oh, the hours, knitting in their dumpy old van (it would be dumpy, because no mastermind of a knitter would spend yarn money on a new van. That’s not the sort of thing that evil knitting geniuses do) waiting, knitting. Hoping against hope… because, and this is the thing… they could only steal one needle size. If they took all of my circulars, surely I would have discovered the diabolical nature of their intent. I would have seen. It would have been obvious. No, no… they’re better than that. They took only one size… but all of that size. Every single 4.5mm needle of use. They left only the short, dented one, knowing that only a big project would drive me to it – and then they waited. They rolled the dice. If I needed a 6mm, nothing would come of their plot. If I hadn’t gone down a needle size to get gauge, it all would have been in vain. Yay verily – they took a chance, and today, today, in a dingy unmarked van, parked somewhere close to my house, there are pro-circ knitters, all in a heap, so happy that they can scarcely breathe.
I just know it.
Clearly it’s a conspiracy.
Be afraid.
I know you are right –
same nasty van group HAS GOT to be in on the dishwasher repair conspiracy against me..I know it..
Yup, I have had the same problem with knitting needle thieves. I just buy some new ones and then the old ones will show up…it works every time!
Isn’t that how it always goes…
May you find your 4.5mm circulars in the last place you look.
they aren’t in the gansey locked away are they?
Muahahaha! *steeples fingers* Our plot has finally come to fruition!
Aw come on you’ve survived teenager raising- have you checked the girl’s rooms for the missing needles? The pals of mine tha t have knitting daughters almost always find missing critical widgets in the daughter’s room…. usually missing stash yarn too.
Thank god. It’s been chilly out here — but totally worth it. Still, we can neither leave nor hand ’em back yet. Come on, let’s hear it…what do you say? What do you say?
I’ll help you. Repeat until we feel it’s enough:
“Straights drool. Circulars rule.”
Oooo, that sounds goooood.
Say it again. Maybe we’ll give you one interchangable tip back.
I feel your pain. I HATE circs! they are sooooo… modern! I’m all for knitting just like my great-great-great (infinity) grandmothers did. Do you have any LONGER straights? how about long DPNs? anything but the circs! Be strong, be strong!
Hm.
Well, actually, some of us evil circ lovers would rather have pictures of you knitting with them… yesssss…. documented photographic evidence of your inevitable submission to the power and magic of the 40″ cord.
Now we have to wait until you find the wretched things. Phooey.
Oh……I feel your pain, I really do. Suffice to say that I was accurately described as someone who would lose her own head if it weren’t screwed on. BUT–I have never known a compulsively neat person who was the slightest bit creative.
I always blame mice, when something goes missing.
😀
I have a terrible time storing circs too. I don’t think there’s an easy solution! 🙂
Is that a laundry hamper full of yarn? *drools a bit* I knew I didn’t have enough of a stash yet… I’m going to go buy that sock yarn I’ve been ogling for the past three days. Thanks for being an awesome enabler 🙂
Oh, and good luck with those circulars. Let’s just say I know the feeling.
Bummer!! I’ve been there too, I don’t use circs much so when I cave in and go looking for them, it takes forever to find them. Your situation really seems like a conspiracy though! Good luck!
the surefire way to find them all – go out and buy new ones! 😉
Too funny!! But I am with rams on this one.
“Straights drool, circulars rule!!”
But I do hope you find your circulars, but they are probably long gone in the van.
I always knew there was a conspiracy at work. It’s the same people who filched my 2.75mm/#2 dpn’s, I just know it.
There are straight needles? Hunh.
Well, well, well, no circulars? I’m not one to get involved in the circular vs. straight debate, so that’s not what I’m thinking. I’m wondering if you know any other knitters who may have, ahem, borrowed them without permission? I know, I know, that would never happen . . . . unless they were family! Maybe someone in your own house is out to get you and instead of a van, the needles are tucked away under some laundry, or such, of another room. Just waiting for mum to have to succumb to the need for circulars and when she can’t find any, she goes mad.
I mean, that’s what I would do to my mom. Except it won’t work — she’s already mad (but in a good way) and she owns a yarn shop. Other than that, I have no other explanation for your lack of 4.5mms. I’d send some your way, but I’m using them currently!
Love the yarn though and can’t wait to see your finished sweater!
Oh my! Those same thieves have visited my house in Salem Oregon! The only thing left to do is tromp on over to the favorite local yarn shop and purchase a needle of the missing size, only somehow this leads to needing more see through bins to store the new yarns that called my name as I found the replacement needle. The good thing is I am being very patriotic and helping our new president with restoring the economy! I think he should contact knitters for help with the economy, we are global purchasers.
I hate when that happens. I just finished Feb. Lady sweater and I even used a short circular needle for sleeve (I would usually use double pointed) and it worked out well.
What a mind, you never cease to amaze me..needle paranoia…very very funny
Wow–I am such a diehard circular knitter that when I got my KnitPicks interchangeables (PS–can you use some of your knitterly clout to get them to a.) etch the size on the ferrules and b.) make it so the tips don’t yank out of the ferrules???) I actually divested myself of my straight needles… But I would NEVER wish this situation upon you! Clearly, a trip to Lettuce Knit is in order!
Your daughters knit, right? Cause I bet they love 4.5 mm circs…
That, or I’m one of the crazies knitting in the van, sowing further discord…
😉
That’s hilarious. I started a shawl on straights last week… and I can’t wait to see how far I progress before having to switch to circs. I’ll have to buy one in the required size, too, since my collection of circs is both eclectic and pathetic.
Hum.. If you want, I can send you my second 4.5mm circular needle that I don’t need right now… I’m sure that you will like them…
I’m with everyone who said “buy ’em and find ’em.” Not a big fan of circs either but I just checked that my 2 sets of interchangeable ones are where they’re supposed to be.
Except, of course, for the ones in use learning to make 2 socks at once. Now that’s a challenge of organization.
Just finished my first pair of official sock yarn socks. And it only took 11 months. Must get faster. See above learning curve.
Now just set that to music and we’ll have our own knitterly version of Dr. Horrible!
ps I hope you find at least one circ in the right size. I wouldn’t wish a missing circ on anybody, even a diehard straight needle fan.
Ooo, sorry I’m late answering, I just got back to the van (it was my turn for the coffee run). Could you move a little to the left? You’re blocking our hidden camera’s view, and we really want a good picture of the crazy…
… and someone has broken into MY house and taken all circular needles EXCEPT the 4.5’s. I kid you not.
Hmmmm.
Wanna trade??!
CGF
I had the same needle stealing mystery. I found the culprit…my cat. In a desperate act of tearing apart the house when finally both (not just one) of my favorite needles were missing. I found every needle under some one or another large piece of furniture (always in the way back mind you).
I hope you find your thief!
Yes, this is so true.
I think they’ve been to my house resently too… because when I was looking for a bag of my grandma’s old circulars, they were GONE. I had cursed those circulars many a time and the knitters in the van must have heard. Now when I needed them, they are gone. I vow to treat my circulars with more respect. (Curse the knitters in the van! They are truly evil.)
Well at least you KNOW what has happened!
Muhahahahahaha! Retribution! Revenge! At last!
That’ll teach you to mock my beloved circulars. :0)
Um, have you asked your daughters if they might know where they are?
It’s the Evil Needle Fairies. Apparently there is some type of repellant on the market, but that would require removing a 9 year old from my house. Alas, I have simply decided to battle the Fairies bravely and threaten to remove all sources of sugar from the home.
Even juice!
Hmm… Maybe this explains my frequent search of my entire apartment for the specific needle I need when I need it and it’s nowhere to be found! I wonder if crazies know me well enough to follow me around?
Have you checked the kids’ projects?
It happens to me every time I need a certain needle. I rip everything apart looking and this takes a lot of time . so much time that I could have been to the LYS and got a new pair quicker and when I do give up go get new ones in about 2 days of looking for something else altogehter–lo and behold the said size turns up!! Drives one into the looney bin. WHEN am I ever going to get some organization in these things. Now I have neddles coming out my ying yang. How to store them properly is the question–especially those darn cics. Good Luck with the lost and found.
i get the business every time i show up to lettuce with straights. especially when i show up with mismatched straights. (i knit with dead people’s needles, what can i say?) my problem right now is darning needles. can’t keep them in a chibi to save my goldanged life.
Brings to mind th age-old question: Is it still paranoia when there really *is* a conspiracy?
I’m with Ingrid.. you’ll find all of them, or remember that you lent them to a knitting class only after you’ve bought a new one.. I think it’s a rule or something… the yarn on your FLS is flipping gorgeous!
I’m with the group which is suggesting you check the daughter’s rooms. It is amazing the number of missing objects that have shown up in one of the children’s rooms in my house.
But I also agree with the group who says buy a new set and you will soon be rolling in 4.5 mm needles. I recently lost the cable for my digital camera, searched everywhere, and blamed a child who had been home for the holidays whom I figured had accidentally taken it home with him. (Notice how I gave him the benefit of the doubt by saying accidentally. I am a good mother.) I broke down, searched the mall to find one and purchased it, and the next day, while looking for a stitch marker, discovered the cable exactly where I had placed it so it would be safe. I blame the stress of the holidays for my loss of memory.
Best wishes in your search. Have you checked the couch cushions?
Have you ruled out the squirrels as suspects? They’ve had ample opportunity to plot since the last time you thwarted them.
That’s how they work! They took all the 4.0 mm from my house, the 4.5 mm from yours… the next person is going to be out some serious 5.0mm needles.
I believe it is the Knitpicks people. They have sold me both the metal and the wooden interchangables, which I love. Yet, when I need one they are rarely around. I search. I note all my WIP with needles in them. The size I want is never found in this way. I’m ready to buy another set (that is their plan, isn’t it?) but I just know, one day while I’m out, they’ll show up and disappear my needles again. The Knitpicks folks are clever, very clever. Good luck!
I do believe I recognize that Knit Picks case. I labeled mine, too, thereby proving that great minds think alike.
It is a conspiracy- it’s the same one that has me knitting the top of my habitat magic loop style on 4mm instead of 4.5mm. They also took my 4.5 dpns as well.
By the way, I gave your post about the Signature Needle Arts to the bf before Christmas…and got 4 pair as my present. Best. Present. Ever. Now if they start making circs…
I guess I haven’t been reading your blog long enough to know your first choice is straights, mine too. I feel like I can knit a lot longer with straights and change my body position more to prevent posture or wrist problems. I am sure the needles are somewhere just not were you can see them, or you keep passing them thinking those aren’t the ones. I lost a tiny screwdriver that goes with my sewing machine I’ve had since 1976 and can’t find it.
Yes, They’re out there.
They’ve been highjacking my favorite KnitPicks DPNs!
“Have you ruled out the squirrels as suspects? They’ve had ample opportunity to plot since the last time you thwarted them.”
you are a wise lady, Cathy…I first suspected the n1nj4! squirrels as well as they are stealth and patient. >)
I am ROFLMAO with tears streaming down my face….seriously.
Sardonic wit and an awesome knitter to boot. What an awesome, awesome woman you are! (That is not sarcasm, btw.)
peace, Mary
How odd. Not more than an hour ago I dumped all my circs out of my circular thingie because all the labels had fallen off and I wasn’t storing them back in the right compartments. So there is a big, jangled mess of naked circs just laying about on my antique table. So, I just checked, and I have at least five 4.5mm…..far more than I would really need, as I seem to knit on teeny ones or really gigantimous ones most of the time. Could some of these be yours?
I’d loan you my circular 4.5 mm addis but they refuse to go to the home of someone who has mocked them so mercilessly in the past. 😉
You just made my morning. They may be evil needle-stealing geniuses, but you are a comic genius.
hmmmmmmmm… maybe that’s where all my darning needles have gone! 🙂
It DOES sound exactly like something a circular fanatic would do…
I thought for sure you were going to have it done by Friday. I guess I shouldn’t have said that yesterday. I hope I didn’t jinx you! Look in the freezer.
I just would like you to know that once you purchase a new 4.5mm needle those little thieves will return yours and you will suddenly be missing the 5mm needles you need next!! Where do they all go?!?
Perhaps your daughters have been knitting shawls on the sly?
There could be other equally valid reasons:
1) 4.5mm circulars are like knitting equivalent to the crappy store-bought missing-socks-in-the-dryer (not hand-knit socks mind you, just the crappy store-bought ones try to escape). They are so overused – they need a vacation 🙂
Mine are missing too, so there might be a 4.5 mm circular school reunion, and the crappy bent one was too embarrassed to be seen in the current shape it was in.
(And no, I’ve never been to my school reunions).
I labeled my Knit Picks sleeves too. It’s sheer maddness not to. My 4.5mm (8s in the US) are always missing too. I think those needles are out partying way too much. I’m not much of a conspiracy theorist though I enjoyed yours.
Just get some Addi Turbos! I have my February Lady on Addis and I’m very happy. I chose the Addis because a) my 4.5mm KP tips in both wood and metal are in something else and b) I didn’t want to chance a KP needle cable join breaking or popping out (ask me how I know — a little Krazy or Superglue will fix them) when I have a bazillion stitches on them!!
First of all as a straight needle lover myself -I knit a lace shawls on straight ones- I raise my beret to you for even trying to knit the thing on straights…
I bet they are at the same place where my 3.5-ers are -I am a loose knitter- along with my son’s school ó-pencils.
Yeah. I have to tell you that, skeptic that I am, reading your story left me a bit suspicious. I mean, mysterious knitters in a van, trying to stress you out because you like straights over circs? Really?? It seems kind of, well… weak in the theory department.
Seriously. I mean, Knitters will give you a hard time, yes. Tease you mercilessly about your ridiculous preference, yes. But cause you to have nothing with which to knit, on an ongoing project? That’s cruelty beyond believability.
Now if you’d said the gray squirrel took it, then I think you’d totally have something.
I confess. My circ knitter friends and I have an intense dislike for straights that has led us to a life of crime. We race around the world in the dead of night stealing all of the unused circs from knitters who actually believe that they can knit a large project on those funny looking sticks. Circ knitters unite!
I always assumed that it was teen witches/wizards who were playing jokes on us muggles by bewitching our needles. So when I go to knit socks, I have absolutly no size one needles (I’m here in the US – I have no idea what the mm is). Not even a lone needle. Then, as soon as I buy yet another pair, the other four pairs I already own magically reappear, right where I left them.
It really is enough to drive you ’round the bend!
I am one of ‘those’ who _does_ prefer circs for nearly everything and I use straights only for casting on, to get the stitches nice and even. However, when I went to start the Leyburn socks, do you think I could find a pair of 16″ 2’s? Of course not! I’ve got longer ones, and one each 16″ size 1 and 2, but not a pair I can actually work with! Lord only knows where they’ve gone, as I only use them for socks, in pairs–how can just one of each disappear? And of course, the interchangeable set doesn’t go down that small. When I told my husband I needed to run over to the shop and get another needle, he gave me that blank husbandly look and asked incredulously, “How can you possibly _need_ another needle, with all you’ve already got???” Silence answereth naught…
I try to feel your pain, I really do, but every time I get distracted by the pretty pretty knitting in the picture. Pretty yarn. Pretty pretty yarn.
Surely, you’ve been to the yarn store by now to buy another—-right?
PS Could it be the squirrel?
Seriously??? No 4.5mm Circs anywhere in your house? That can’t be. Maybe they left with Sir Washie. He did look like he was sort of getting even on the way out.
They’ve got to be with that damn Cascade Superwash that I’ve torn my house apart twice trying to find. My husband says I must have knit it already, but I’d definitely remember that, right?
Honey, you need to get a grip…lol. And you know as soon as you buy them you’ll find 3 pairs at home.
Oh, I know how you feel. I hate it when I can’t find needles I know I have. I check the roll, the needle binder, baskets, tubs, all yarn stashes, UFO’s….
I sure do hope you find some. I want more eye candy of your sweater to be!
I was contemplating a “not buying more needles” year – I really *should* have enough by now, then this story shows me that I might not be able to make it! – I sympathise!
Did you check “the safe place”? My husband and I are always conscientiously putting things “in safe places” for “when we need them” and when we actually do need them, we can’t remember where the safe place was.
But I also agree completely with the suggestions that engaging in retail therapy will result in all of the 4.5 mm needles coming out of hiding. At one point I thought I completely misplaced/lost my set of KnitPicks Harmony DPs… so I ordered another set. A day after I placed the order I found the first set… in the place where I always store my DPs.
I would also interrogate the pets. I can’t tell you how many DPs and straight needles have committed suicide by enticing my feline companions to play with them….
Mija, i feel your pain, hold on, be strong, and always be prepared to find the circ’s you need when you come back from the shop with a nice new pair…
It could happen. Someone really did break into my car and in the process of stealing the 2 tote bags (dirty gym clothes and my knitting) managed to make off with my entire set of Knit-picks interchangables, 3 ball of Silk Garden and the start of my first entrelac scarf. I found the gym clothes in an alley, but they kept the knitting. It must be a western branch of the same nefarious knitting gang!
Dude. Seriously. How is that even possible? I’m really concerned for your safety. It is clear that you have a stalker … or three. And why is it that the one size you need is never there when you need it? Ugh.
Oh, heavens. Does this mean you’ll have to go to *gulp*. . .The Yarn Store?!?!?
Oh, heavens, I may faint!
😉
Damn, and I thought I was paranoid. Once again, I bow to the queen-ness of you.
(are you sure the knitting daughter didn’t “borrow” them?)
And you’re sure there are no languishing WIP’s sitting on a 4.5mm circ in the back of a closet somewhere? ‘Cause that’s totally where they’d be in my house.
I just had to laugh at this because I went through this exact same thing, only with dpns… I could find 3 of the given size I needed to make toddler mittens, but not the fourth… Oh how I searched! I gauged every one that I could find, have lots of US 7s, lots of US 5s, but nary a one extra US 6. Of course it justified a trip to the not so local LYS, but still, it was infuriating, and my guess is one of th multitude of teens here “borrowed” it because it fit in with some obscure plan they had (who knows or understands what goes on in the minds of teens anyway??!! I certainly don’t and I have worked in the mental health field with them for over 16 years!).
They’ve been to my house. They’re the reason I have gobs of 2.25mm dpns, which I seldom use, and only 3 (not the 4 I need to knit a sock) 2.75mms, without which I cannot knit a sock that fits me. And, btw, they aren’t in any other sock, or mitten, for that matter, nor are they in the bottom of a currently-unused knitting bag. I went thru them all. (That’s a lot of bags.) If we could just find that van, we could reclaim what is ours!
Tuesdays are for spinning….Pro-circ knitters? Don’t be too sure.
You are one insane woman!! And this is why i keep coming back.
So did you hit the LYS for the circ??
Hmmmm… when is the last time you actually remember seeing a 4.5 mm circ in your house??
On another tack, what draw did you use on the lovely Brick stuff? I beleive I’ve read you prefer a long woolen draw – me too. My copy of In Sheep’s Clothing suggests a worsted draw (ack – not my style, but I did it becauze the book said so). I’ll finish my Brick using that. But I have some “dyed to go with” yet to spin and I might change if you made beautiful yarn with a woolen draw.
Holy circulars! the fiends! Oh my gosh! What a bad name to give circular-needle knitters!
I feel your pain. I really do. The straights really don’t work? (sigh) how aweful!
I think it was gnomes.
Yesterday, did I noticed the Chesterfield was smirking? Did you check to see if he swallowed any 4.5s? He might be sitting on them.
You’ll KNOW it’s a conspiracy if there aren’t any 4.5s at the LYS.
(Being of the circular persuasion, I use the justification that you don’t lose the other needle in the middle of the night… but I hadn’t thought about the whole needle being lost… except I swear that I bought a 10.75… where can it be? I’m looking in the sofa.)
The FLS is scrumptious! Cannot wait to see it in pictures.
well…. if you come looking for us, bring chocolate and wine as ransom… we’ve been parked out here sitting on our @$&*$ knitting away for a really long time…. bring lots, for we are legion…bwa ha ha
“I find a lot of interesting things (really. I have a lot on the go. I should get back to some of these bad boys) and I do not find a SINGLE 4.5mm circ. (I do, however, find many projects on 4.5mm straights. It’s like being taunted.)”
Okay, my curiousity is piqued, although I do admit to some trepidition in the “be careful what you ask for” category…. Just how many projects do you have on the go at the moment anyway?
It is not the squirrels. I repeat it is not the squirrels. Being a honorary member of the secret squirrel league (may they never find out that I told you) they are not interested in circs. They are very strictly into fiber but have their own secret ways of working with it that do not include out clumsy instruments of torture. Their phrasing not mine.
I am also obliged to report that small house pets are notorious for stealing only one needle and hiding it for years under the stove and couch!
So when will you be taking the bus to the yarn shop? I recommend you call ahead and have them hold you one, just so no one walks in and buys the last one.
Or, could you try a larger straight? I always start on 10″, and only switch up to 14″ when I absolutely have to. Or are you on a 14″ already?
Where the heck are they!!!?
This is what comes of providing too much info to the world (what my husband would say). You gave some one an opening to get to you, and mess with your stuff and mind (ala Amelie). But really, that is a crazy size to be missing. I’m a circ person myself, but I have a healthy respect for those who prefer straights–so it wasn’t me that stole your 4.5s, honestly–though I do seem to have a lot of them lying around 😉
Well, what you’ve knit so far is totally beautiful.
Have you checked with the elf? The elf at our house (which goes to show not everything in Harry Potter’s world is fantasy – we’re had a house elf for years, except he only takes things) always waits until we replace the unfindable thing and then the sneaky little guy puts it right in plain sight (or somewhere we each totally looked at least 8 times).
Good luck; your yarn is yummy-looking!
Ask the kids, they know everything.
I recently discovered my toddler poking my dpn’s down the heat vent. (I recovered them!) My 8 year old “borrows” unattended needles for sculpture projects. Have you had small children around lately?…
They are definitely in the “land of lost things” – someday I will find it and all the lost things can come home.
In the meantime, you could use those screw on cap things that come with the interchangeable needles to extract a pair of 4.5 mm tips for the February Lady. Just be sure to label the project you take them from so you will know what size to re-attach when the time comes.
Knit on!
You do have children who knit, do you not?
Ya know…
when you wrote that you were going to spin the yarn and knit February Lady for Madrona,
I kinda suspected that you might be, a little, in a particular way, maybe, a bit, ‘unbalanced’…but which is the cause and which is the effect? :o)
Actually we have upgraded the van to include dvd players built into the backs of the headrests so we could watch our Elizabeth Zimmerman DVD’s as we waited. 🙂
I found my missing needles, which I knew I had somewhere, in a receipt folder, on the upper shelf in my computer room, just yesterday. I now own 11 sets of size 4 (US) circular needles, in varying cable lengths. I also have them in straights. I’m not quite sure why I felt the need to corner the market on this size but if you ever have a crisis need for 3.5mm, I’m clearly the person to call. 🙂
All you have to do is go out and buy another 4.5mm circular needle. You will then find all of yours. Works every time!
And just in case you still thought straight needles were completely safe:
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/with-a-knitting-needle-piercing,690258.shtml
Be careful out there! – KVL
Hey Steph, you know the really great thing? Once you find one circular needle, you have a set! Unlike those rebellious straight needles that are always wandering off. Just sayin’… 😉
What I want to know is how long the straight is.
I blame the gnomes, honestly.
I have a whole gnome dedicated to hiding my pens and binder clips at work… and what’s worse, I have named him Ted.
Do the girls have a friend with a van? (oh and I had to go look to see what size a 4.5mm is….I guessed right)
Thanks for the glimpse into your day. I needed that….. 😉
Yes, of course, no matter how many needles you accumulate, you will never have the right one, in the right length, size and style at the right time. Go figure.
At least you live in a metropolitan area where there are LYS’s….and like others have said, once you buy a set, undoubtedly all the lost ones will come a-runnin’.
I had to buy multiple tips for the KnitPicks set I own because I’m such an unfaithful, lazy, non-finishing knitter.
You have an imagination out-of-control. I love it!!
paranoia sets in. hilarity ensues.
And dude, circulars can be dangerous too, KVL!
http://www.ptleader.com/print.asp?ArticleID=10138&SectionID=36&SubSectionID=55
The exact same thing happened to me last night. I could not for the life of me find the 4.5mm tips for my options. It’s a conspiracy I tell you!
Aha! Stephanie Pearl-McPhee at her grandest! Thank you for my bestest laugh of the day.
By the way, at our house, it’s the size 2 circulars that come up missing.
It’s the knitters from Lettuce Knits (probably Denyy, I wouldn’t put it past her). It’s their evil plot to get you to visit their store yet again (only 3 times this week so far? tsk. not nearly enough) and spend yet more of your money there. One 4.5 mm circ, and some of that alpaca, and just one pattern, and a little sock yarn, and bingo! You’re broke again! You have to write another book again! You’re trapped in the endless knit cycle!
Wow. That sounds familiar. And I don’t even write knitting books…
The cat’s in on it.
Daughters, perhaps?
Ooh, what a great variation of “Gaslight!” You can write it! Picture an evil husband driving his knit loving wife mad by hiding her circs then putting them back right after she goes out and buys replacements!
Nope. It’s all those projects languishing away that have it in for you. I hear them plotting in the yarn closet at night.
Squirrel. Totally the fleece-stealing squirrel.
Get thee to thy yarn shoppe!
All this time I’ve been wondering how I ended up with four pairs of 4.5 mm Perhaps these bandits are redistributing.
Those evil knitting geniuses were at my house around christmas. All of my US size 3 needles are gone. I’ve refused to buy more, thus putting off projects and driving myself crazy wondering where those needles could have gone off to. If you ever catch this band of crazy knitter, tell them I want my size 3’s back ;o)
Wow- I never knew you prefered straight needles. My personal knitting goddess has a flaw. 🙂
As a circular needle lover (I only have 1 pair of straights- size 35) I do have to say that I would never wish this on you, and I hope you find them, or your way to a store with them very soon.
Fantastic post! You should write humor books!
OK, that was just funny. I went to my “bag o’ circular needles” looking for MY 4.5mm (just for the hell of it) and was surprised to see mine was missing too! That means it HAS to be in a project which is weird b/c i NEVER use a 4.5mm. I can’t imagine what project it could be in! This is going to drive ME crazy now. Thanks for spreading the needle hunt clear down to Florida! =^P
Good luck finding them! Have you considered that you may have hurt your circular needles wee feelings for preferring straight needles all these years? How many times have you ignored them, admit it, almost with a sneer toward their second class position amongst your needles? Apologize and they may reappear.
(I must confess I love circular needles. My knitting doesn’t fall off easily in the bag, the weight of the knitted material can sit on my lap instead of weighing down one hand or the other and if I use two at a time I can so easily ‘try on’ a sleeve or the body of a sweater or a hat or a sock to check the fit. My straight needles have been in a respectful state of retirement for years. Notice I said respectful. I don’t want any trouble from them. They are good friends with my rather fickle stitch markers.)
This group obviously covers a lot of territory. They must bear responsibility for why I have five 7(US) circulars in 24″ and 29″ lengths, and no 2(US) circ at all, which the current set of mittens requires.
You forgot the part about how they stretched their earlobes to perfectly fit around a 4.5mm needle so they wouldn’t have to tote a gauge when they broke into your house to steal your needles!
Very funny, and I’m so sorry. Being thwarted sucks!
I suspect those teenagers. I’d call them “pesky”, but they do seem like lovely girls. Except when they’re (potentially) stealing 4.5mm circs.
Go buy a new set, then you’ll find all the missing ones.
If you find them, can you see if they know where my missing fingerless mitt has gone? I knitted a pair and wore them for at least a week. Then one day I looked in my bag and just one was gone. ONE. Grrrr…
Mwahahaha! And now, at long last, we can tumble out of this dingy, unmarked van for a breath of fresh air…..and go off to amuse ourselves by watching our hilarious video loop of you searching and searching and searching. Bwahaha!
OBviously you haven’t really given circular needles a serious trial. If you had you’d KNOW we have a superior method. ONE long circular needle….good for EVERYthing. Really!
Um, have you asked your family? You never know what use they may have found for circular needles. It won’t be knitting, I guarantee.
I think it’s a conspiracy….whoever sneaks in and takes one sock of pair, must now be taking 4.5 knitting needles!
Dastardly, I’d say!
Gene
I swear I have the same needle gremlins lurking about my house. I ONLY knit with circular needles and have many, many, many duplicate sets of needles but the size I need is ALWAYS MIA when I need it, which explains why I have so many duplicates.
This only happens to me after 9pm when there is no place in the world that I can even go and purchase a that particular thing I just happen to need to move forward on my knitting project. Why aren’t there any 7/24 Knitting Shops anyway?
You MUST be a Gemini.
I think they took all of my 5mm too…
These would be the same people who have been making off with your tape measures for years?
You’re not taking your medication, are you? We can tell. Calm down. Don’t worry about the people in the van. We can call someone and have them bring you a circular needle. Breathe.
Har. They were at my house last night, I kid you not. Also 4.5mms. They left me the 47″ one that drives me crazy but everything else was gone. I checked the couch, the bin, the bag… and then I found they’d also taken the damn needle sizer, so I tore up the entire living room AGAIN looking for it.
Go ouside, kick their butts and tell them to GIVE ME BACK MY NEEDLES TOO!
OK, has Hank been over lately? Has he gone beyond wool winding to actually knitting? Did he perhaps take them home on his last visit to experiment with entrelac???
Sorry, Steph. I know how frustrating it is. Mine hide under the bed. In the middle. Where I can’t reach from either side without a yardstick (would that be a meter-stick in Canada?). And they mock me.
Yep – the take my darning needles too. I think they sell them on E-bay or something.
Oh, but I bet I know where they are (if it isn’t the cat, but then again, I ALWAYS blame the cats.) Under the edge of the lawn where it hits the sidewalk. Find my DP’s there all the time. Don’t know why. I think something is being plotted cosmically and I just don’t have the time to figure it out. I have knitting to do….
This is a very straightforward demonstration of the 77th Law Of Knitting Dynamics which is: The specific needle or set of needles that a knitter needs for a project RIGHT NOW is always the one, out of the hundreds of needles already owned, that has disappeared into a wormhole.
Can’t fight physics – go buy three more, in different lengths.
Good excuse for not completing your FLS in time… (I’m only saying that b/c I started one 1.5 wks ago, and I’ll be really disheartened when you complete yours *way* before I complete mine, and you even spun your own yarn!!!)
I have just locked my 15mm addi’s up in our little fireproof safe…
By the time the van gets to New Brunswick I figure they’ll be looking for 15 mm !?!?!
Or maybe you were sleepwalking last night and hid them all from yourself so you’d have no choice but to go to the yarn store today and get more. Huh? Huh? Maybe?
I stole the needles, Steph – it is part of my master plan to get you to admit that circs are wonderful, essential things! All you have to do is publicly admit it, on your blog, and the needles will reappear. And I’m not even outside your house – way too cold for me there – I did it all by remote control. But I am laughing.
Ask your cat… she’ll know who your thief was!!
On second thought… Mardi may be onto something… when are they firing up the Hadron Collider..?
Maybe it was last night..? Somebody in another dimension needed your 4.5mm circ’s and zip…. right thru the black hole that is supposed to be created by the Hadron Collider!!
Maybe if you go to the CERN website and send them an email…? Maybe you’ll get them back ?
Christiann… thinking maybe knitters and physicists have a lot in common…..or that I should cut back on the coffee…
I can’t be the only person to have thought of this. Steph, you have – is it two? – knitting *teenagers* in your house.
Have you tried under their beds yet?
Must be the same knitting thieves who will take all the plastic bits from my interchangeable circs kits and just leave me with the short needle tips!
I thought I saw a squirrel in a grungy old van parked down the street from your house; it was a little hard to tell, though, as it had cleverly hidden it’s identity behind sunglasses.
Petra, who is quickly running out of MC to finish my Green Mist Jacket.
They must have sprung into action when Joe got the truck stuck… That’s the only time they could have done it :/
Psst. You know you don’t want to buy a new one, because then all your 4.5mm circs will suddenly show up, in a pile, on your couch, taunting you for spending that $12 on a new needle when you HAVE ENOUGH NEEDLES ALREADY (I know, no such thing, but work with me here). Would you like me to loan you one of mine? I, too, frequently work with straights, but I’m sure I have a 4.5mm circular around here somewhere…
Well, take heart in knowing that you have made me feel a lot better about how I ransacked my entire house yesterday in search of size 2 DPN’s.
I’m with all the folks that wonder if you have checked the girls’ rooms?
Otherwise… I am busy trying to imagine what The Borrowers could possibly use them for… Ski Lifts?
Hmm…
I have your needles in my clutches…
If you want to see them attached to their cords ever again, send yarn — natural fibers in sweater quantities only.
Respond by private email with your offer.. Do not call the authorities (knitting or otherwise) or you’ll never hear from them again.
Oooh! Oooh! I want to be an evil knitting genius when I grow up!
I vote for the teenagers. Or the squirrels. Or the entity who stole all my size 2 dps and bent all my size 1 dps.
Good luck!
I’ve lost all of non-broken DPNs. I have a complete set Harmony woods that is missing. I broke down and ordered a set in 3.00 mm and 3.25 mm so I can finish my project. They’ll be delivered tomorrow so I’m certain to find the set on Friday.
…they came to my house too. Thats why I bought new addis for my blue sweater.
No 4.5mm anywhere, dude we need help.
Call Rachel H.
Those van people are everywhere!! I keep track of my needles on my Ravelry page, so I know what I have and don’t purchase more. However, it seems the fairies, van people, or others make them disappear once I’ve entered them on the Ravelry page!
I suggest you purchase 2 items: First is a security camera in your “yarn palace”, and Second, a new 4.5m circular. Good luck.
….we’ll meet at the yarn store tomorrow night for a meeting.
and beer. You need beer.
I can account for my whereabouts, as can Border Patrol.
I’m sorry, not finding stuff you know you own is evil. On a brighter note, I realized I was totally knitting on my 4.5 mm knitpicks circs while reading this, which sort of cracked me up. 😀
It’s the Leprechans I tell ya. They took all mine too — all my US 7’s (4.5mm). I swear sets should come with 2 of that size.
Have you checked your heating vents? 😉
It is a total conspiracy! I cannot find a single 4.5mm either! I have empty packages that remind me that I once purchased straight needles, double-points, various lengths of circular 4.5mm, but no needles. I’ve checked the UFOs and all of the random places that they might be.
This evil must be stopped!
Oh, I’m always wishing I had back all the time I spent searching for needles… And I keep reminding myself of it every time I just toss a set back into the giganto knitting basket and tell myself I’ll “put them away later…” Ah well. Hope you find yours soon!
Dear Ms. Yarn Harlot. Please understand that we of the circular knitting cabal have not plotted to drive you crazy. We have plotted to drive you to the nearest yarn store. We determined that the combination of too-large appliances, too-abundant snow, too cold for thought, too many teen-agers… are undermining your well-being. Therefore you need an immediate health intervention of yarn fumes and new needles.
And about the dingy van? Darn right we are not spending money on something as insignificant as a vehicle.
After reading your post, I checked, and would you believe they’ve got all my 4.5mm tips from both my Denise *and* my Options sets? Clearly, this evil gang gets around!
In our house we call that mysterious place where things disappear the Spacewarp. It’s only accessible by nonverbal beings, i.e. children, animals, and the elderly who have descended into senility. Maybe you should borrow a preverbal toddler, who can then access the Spacewarp for you and find your missing needles and that lifetime supply of tape measures.
You’re brilliant Stephanie. Such a wonderful, imaginative writer. I just LOVE your stuff!!! And….good luck with the needle search.
Watch–you’ll find one somewhere after you read all these comments. It happens to me all the time. I lose something and then I complain about it, search everywhere, and when I least expect it, when I’ve given up all hope, I find it in the most obvious place. I hate it when that happens! Good luck finding your circular!
I have increased security.They always take my scissors.
Hey are they in league with the stitch marker thieves??
If you find these criminals please send them my way as they have taken all my 2.25 mm DPNs. 🙂
I haven’t yet read all the other comments, but you should probably check the newly remodeled bedroom first. Then, call your eldest daughter’s roommates and ask them to have a look-see at her new digs. Finally, check the local Museum of Natural History and inquire if they have any squirrel nests made out of unidentifyable (to them) stringy plastic and metal material. The missing needles are sure to be in one of these spots.
There must be some odd little nomes out there because your circulars and my husband’s flashlights are among the missing.
I know just what would happen to me: I’d give up the search, go out and get a new 4.5 needle, come home, find all of the 4.5 needles that had been hiding somewhere . . . and not be able to get gauge with any of them.
It’s EZ.
The ghost of EZ has come to mock you. Don’t try and deny it. It is her sweater after all — this is her turf.
My advice: convert to the Way of the Circ. Resistance is futile.
Check the couch. That’s where mine always are. Either in it or underneath it. Always. And how does that happen anyway? Did I just bring them down from my needle stash to get a gauge and tossed them aside when they didn’t do what I wanted? Do they crawl away to sulk because I didn’t use them? And I am a circular girl so it may be just circulars have this ability. I though you were going to say your daughter had them all in her room from working on hats or scarves, etc.!!!!! You did, of course, check that out didn’t you????? Good luck and lovely yarn!
Are you sure that all of the 4.5 mm circs are at a special convention somewhere just for them? Having a rip roaring time at the hotel bar where they try to engage different 4.5 circs to do the tango, telling stories of their knitting exploits, trumping each other in tales from the stash, and bemoaning how long they just sit there between jobs. I really think they’re at a convention just to tick you off.
If you want to see your 4.5mm circs again, gather up all your sock yarn in unmarked plastic bags and await further instructions. Do NOT notify the authorities. If you contact any knitting guild or circle, we will know.
How about re-writing the February Lady Sweater pattern for straights and then sharing it with me!!
I have been dying to convert this beautiful pattern, but I have been having trouble and you are way better than me!!!
They’re probably being used on Joe’s unfinished gansey. I think Joe did this to you so that you’d finish his sweater.
Sorry, don’t know what to say about the missing circs, other than I hate when that happens.
I store my circs in toothbrush holders with a divider in the center. One point in each side keeps them relatively orderly. Never pay full price, though. Those things go on clearance all the time and I try to have a coupon as well. That way I can buy more yarn!
you know what you have to do……
buy new ones
Check the cat….it may be cahoots with the vile theives!
You are a riot, Stephanie. LOL. May you find your needles or enjoy the excuse to go to the LYS.
I’ll bet it was those guys that were working in your house for the washing machine. Those weren’t wires hanging out of their toolboxes!
You almost tricked me with your words, but then I scrolled up and saw how great the sweater is looking, straights or circs. (Depends on the project for me!)
It’s a total conspiracy! I need size US 7 DPNs to knit the sleeves of a 0-3 month sized baby sweater. A sweater for the baby I’m currently hauling around in my uterus and hoping to evict ASAP. Can’t find any at home, take the 2 and 3 year old to AC Moore. And they have NONE! NONE! Can’t hit another craft store today – too much snow, too much craft store for little ones.
GRRR!!! Who are these needle bandits???
We’ve also taken 2 dpns from a few of your dpn sets for making fun of us knitting our socks on circular needles.
Bwa ha ha!
Love,
Laurie and Cat
How many knitters are in your family, Steph? I’d go check their stash… the needle you’re looking for wouldn’t perhaps be stuck in that gansey you were knitting for Joe would it? It was kind of in that needle size range…
The place where they stash clothes hangers and odd socks must have opened up a new department.
You crack me up! Thank you!
I’d love to know why you prefer straights. I just cast on my first ‘big’ project (Oblique) using the lovely Lantern Moon Straights my mom gifted me and it’s killing my arm. . . the needle gets so heavy!
I own a yarn shop. I have learned from years of observing knitters and projects that there is a Cardinal Rule of knitting needles: No matter how many needles you have, if you start a new project, you will need to buy another size.
Yeah. Happens all the time. That’s when I run out and buy my 42nd set of needles of the same size.
Okay I confess! I did it! Really I did! All the way from North Bay, I telepathically removed all of the 4.5mm circs from your posession.
They were screaming I tell you. Screaming because of lack of use. They were cold because you hadn’t caressed them in years! They were hungry cause you didn’t feed them the yarn they needed. And they were sad because you ignored them and chose those damned 4.5mm straights over them even when they knew you would need the circs to do this sweater.
I could hear them all the way up north. So I liberated them to a place where they will be put to good use. I have already fed them yummy yarn and caressed each circ. I don’t own straights, I loathe them so they will get my undivided attention.
Please know I did this for their own good. They needed to be saved!
;-p Now go out and buy a new circ would ya?
hee hee hee hee
They’re somewhere hanging out with one of my sz 6 dpns and about a dozen tapestry needles.
Steph,
Did they take all of the tape measures, too? Or would that just be too cruel?
Have you asked the other knitters in your household ? Just maybe …
So was the LYS still open?
I see a mystery novel in the making.. “The Great Needle Caper of ’09”
Bloody DPNs, bloody leg, bloody FLS, bloody Madrona. As though you didn’t have bloody enough in your day.
you are awesome.
Clearly you cleaned your kitchen and neglected to leave the crumbs for the tomten (gnome…NOT house elves, people!). Quick! Cook some porridge and leave it on the door step!
St Anthony’s prayer also works…honest and I am not Catholic!
St. Anthony, St.Anthony, please come around
Something’s lost that must be found.
Say it repeatedly (think homily) until your instincts push you in a direction. No nudge is too small. It SO works. Found a 1″ Tinkerbell lost in transit at DisneyWorld over a 15 minutes walk. Kicked it with my foot in the middle of the 300th repeat. There it was. Even my third graders swear by it!
Hmmm, maybe they have gone to the same place your tape measures have disappeared to. Have you read any of the Borrower’s books? They are a family of tiny people about two inches high and they live under the floorboards of an old house. And they sneak up into the house at night and borrow things. I think they may have all your tape measures, and now they’ve discovered a use for circular needles.I can’t imagine what they would do with them, but Borrowers are very clever. Are you missing anything else?
Yes, what is with that? The number of times I’ve needed 2.5mm needles for socks and cannot find any (despite having at least four sets), or this 4.5mm needle thing instead of good 4mm needles (Oz standard size is 4mm or 5.5mm)….
Of course as soon as you buy a new set, the others pop out of whatever hyperdimensional warp they were in and taunt you.
I love how you have spare needles stored (and labeled!) in your luggage for “knitting emergencies” – I had to giggle while imagining just what kinds of emergencies might require a full set of Knit Picks needles with interchangeable tips.
Perhaps the 4.5mm needles have banded together and staged a revolt. After years of being considered inferior to straights in most situations, they may have developed a complex and chosen to demonstrate their true value by disappearing just when you need them most. 😉
I am one of those who much prefers circs, but I swear it wasn’t me! (I actually use circs not because I believe them to be inherently superior, but because I’ve got some joint issues and I just can’t handle the weight of something on straights.) Don’t ask me know many pairs of size 7 (4.5) circs I’ve got around the house and how I just had to go out and buy a size 8 (5) because there were none to be found. Perhaps that van was outside my place this weekend…
be careful what you say on here.
the vans have ears.
anyway you may now be inundated by people sending you 4.5mm circs.
be careful what you tell the blog you need:)
I agree that the conspiracy of circ-loving knitters is the most likely explanation, but have you tried looking under the cushions on the couch? Your knitting chair?
I would check Meg and Samantha. They both knit. They are teenagers. They can NOT be trusted.
I so know how you feel!!! My nemisis is a 6.5 mm circular. I’ve tried to own one for years and have been mostly unsuccessful!!! Don’t give up.
Hmm, I always have to go down an extra size when I use circs (I’m a loose woman). So the 4.5 for me would become a 4.
Maybe you should try that?
For the amount of time you spent looking for the needles you could have gone down to the yarn shop and got some new ones. And a few more skeins of yarn while you were at it.
This is the kind of scenario I am mindful of avoiding. And totally justifies why I have way too many needles!
I hope you find them. Do you want me to send you a 4.5mm circ so you can get on with your FLS?
I’m voting for the St. Anthony prayer. Found my dog after three days of crying with that one. I’d check the kitty litter too…circs are a delicacy for cats apparently. Ask me how I know!
I’m guessing the daughters, too. Heck, it might even be in MY daughter’s closet. The things I find in there… I’ll ask her for you.
I think the knitting Gods (and those waiting patiently for the COWL PATTERN) have conspired against you! Post the cowl pattern and your needles will appear!
LOL
Ha!
Now I know!
I was looking for my 4.5mm circ to take on the bus with me. There is nothing!
I finally bought a double sided zippered notebook and lots of pencil cases that fit the ring binder. One side is marked “fixed,”the other “interchangeable.” I separate my sizes, cords, and accoutrements. I also use the sleeves from the Knitpicks’ case, which is MUCH too small. I separate needles by skipping sizes- 4’s with 6’s, 5’s with 7’s, etc., so I can tell them apart without a gauge. Despite all this, I can never find a size 5, which makes me crazy. It has, however, reduced the number of cords consumed by my adolescent feline, lovingly dubbed “Rumplestiltskin.” At least he stays away from my wheels. Perhaps he feels he’ll need them when the princess arrives.
I suspect nargles are behind it.
Perhaps they also made off with my interchangeable needle set which has been lost since August. Sure would like to have that back…
You need to get out more, my dear. This winter drags on too long, you’re suffering from cabin-fever-induced-paranoia. Buy a new circ, some tulip bulbs and wait for Spring.
Interesting fantasy. The specific type of van and why is a unique touch. Personally I have always imagined that some pickpocket will go into my purse, take out only the few pitiful bills in my pocket and leave a note calling me a sucker.
Based on considerable experience I think your 4.5 mm circ is in some project which you are refusing to admit is a UFO. Yeah, come on, you know the one. Of course you will finish it soon – soon being an elastic modifier. Yeah, that one.
Could it be stuck in your hair? I’m guessing you already checked your bra, right?
Just a suggestion…whenever I switch from straights to circs my gauge tends to change, too. You might be able to go with the next size larger needle and have it all work out. Can’t wait for the next installment.
Um, did you look in the girls rooms? because if it was my house I know that’s where they’d be, the missing needles would either be in my sons room holding something together, or would have mysteriously transported themselves to my daughters apartment in Toronto.
YES! Circ lovers unite! Our day has come at last!
sending you jack bauer 24
Rams really scares me. Really.
I knew it was a bad idea to read your blog when the doctor told me not to laugh. I blame this coughing fit on your wit!!
What is killing me here is that I am losing my mind because I ONLY knit on circs and yet I seemingly have knit for over 5 years without ever requiring a 4.5mm needle. My most used size is 4mm, I quite often use a 5mm, but I need a 4.5mm needle today, and I can’t for the life of me EVER buying or owning one.
When you find your stash of 4.5mm circs, can you send me one?
Someone took my favourite 4.5 mm hat circular. (I use it to make my amazing toques.) If someone didn’t swipe it, then it’s gotta be the cat. Or the dog. Or even the mice in the west wall? Or did my husband take it because he’s tired of being a knitting widow?
Evil knitting geniuses. I about choked to death with laughter just now.
Wow….
You have to stop looking for the 4.5’s and start looking for something else. Anything else. Decide that now is not the time to knit with this new and lovely yarn. Clear away the cobwebs and fall in love with something different. Then and only then will you find all of your 4.5’s cowering in one small corner, one forgotten and benighted corner, hidden from view, where you looked at least 10 times.
Or at least that happened when I was looking for my 4’s. Couldn’t find any of them, till I started looking for 4.5’s.
Yes. We took your needles. We watched you tear up your house searching for them. We laughed until our cheeks ached and our stomachs hurt. We had tears running down our cheeks and nearly passed out from lack of oxygen. We laughed so hard that we tipped the van, but no worries there, it’s a beat up old thing and you wouldn’t notice anyway.
It was so worth the wait.
On to the next house.
I have some! Right here!!! (I’m not mocking, I’m offering my assistance, if you should need it.)
You are crazy funny!
Umm…dare I say….check again?
Have you checked the girls rooms? The needle moving vortex in my house tends to deposit the needles in my childs “craft project” container.
So, uh…you DID go out and buy a new 4.5 mm circ, right?? There’s no way you are still sitting around the house WITHOUT this relatively-easy-to-acquire tool, is there?!?
You are crazy funny!
Umm…dare I say….check again?
I’m upgrading and finishing my needle case soon I guess.
I must ask. How does one “dent” a circular needle?
Ok, I admit. I and my fellow knitters dreamed up the great plan to have ALL of your 4.5 mm circulars magically disappear. We did have insider help though, and, for you to blog of our scheme down to the last detail, I am assuming our insider ratted on us.
Just so you know, your needles are being held for ransom. We are demanding, requesting, begging, that you place in a large unmarked box, one 12 pak of assort Canadian beer, 1 pound of good quality milk chocolate, 2 autographed copies of your latest book, 6 skeins of kuani yarn, and last but not least, 1 pair of hand knit socks ladies size 8. Place this parcel on your front steps at exactly midnight on February 4th and I can garuntee that all 15 size 4.5mm circle needles in assorted lengths will be returned to you unharmed.
I bet it was your daughters who took them.
Oh my god, you make me laugh.
Your Circulars are safe. Leave all your straights on the nearest squirrel feeder with a pile of cashews, lightly salted. If you comply by Friday, your circulars will probably appear in some part of your house at some point in time. Yes, we squirrels have learned to drive. And type.
Who knew knitting could be so funny?! My 12-year old son love reading your blog and comments following. One day I may even get him to knit!
Perhaps if you leave out milk and cookies, the nefarious knitting thieves will return your 4.5 mm circs. Of course, while they’re in your house munching away, you could retrieve all the needles they stole from mine, yes?
It is a conspiracy though with me they put it back when I’ve completely given up and changed needle size, or bought a new one, leading to a rastiferian fern glade lace hat instead of a nice slightly baggy fern glade in a gorgeous purple… I switched ..first a warning.. instead of a four, which i gueaged on the circs then set down, to an eigh, gasp… and now it’s huge, but works to annoyingly cradle my fat cat.
Hmm. L-Space (library-space) connects all large collections of books; sofa-space connects the backs of all sofas; laundry-space connects all sock-eating washing machines; now it looks as though there is teenager-closet-space and possibly needle-space. Or have they finally metamorphosed into their adult stage? Have you seen any suspiciously new-looking net shopping bags with decorative metal tips on the drawstring?
Did you find lots of 5mm and larger? Maybe your 4.5mm’s just ate too much yarn and are bloated with indigestion. Look again tomorrow or the next day they should have lost their excess size by then and be back to their normal 4.5mm selves.
Or you could just go buy a couple new ones. Can’t have too many 4.5mm needles. (Obvioously!)
You’re being gaslighted. Who would benefit from your being carried out in a straitjacket?
On the other hand, if all your 4.5s are lost, the only way for them to be found is to buy replacements.
Whatever makes you think that someone(s) took your circs? Don’t you know that circs have a life of their own? They can only contain that pent-up energy so long before letting loose and flying the coop. I’ve seen with my own eyes a whole gang of circs springing across a hallway and making squiggly haste for the front door. No amount of ironing or heat treatment can tame the wild circ. You’ll have to surrender. Buy more.
You will never mock us again! The Circs have shown you our power and it is mighty. Hopefully this time you got the message because if you didn’t, your 2.5mm and 3mm DPN are next. You just try and knit a sock on your beloved straights then. You’ll have to resort to learning the Magic Loop method. We’ll have you totally in our power!!!! (Evil laugh here) Never underestimate the power of the Circs!
Have you checked your girls’ bags and hiding holes?
YIKES – that has happened to me this Christmas, when my friend came to borrow a 3mm circular; and I couldn’t even find one.
O.K. New Theory. You have angered the Knitting Goddess and she has taken your needed circ as a suitable sacrifice. Spun and knit in time for Madrona. yup. Sounds like tempting the fates to me. By the way, did you put away those circulars that had found their way to your office?
I’m sure the straight vs circular debate happened long time ago but personally I’m not sewing any side seams unless I absolutely have to.
I’m with the “you have kids what knit crowd” good luck with that
Maybe your 4.5mm circs have run off with my 6mm circs… either that or there is a needle monster (distant cousin of sock monster) in your house too. Both very plausible explanations I think.
You got Punked by a knitter! 🙂
I got to work today and had only one 4.25mm Clover straight needle and the same size in my ‘travelling’ stash of circular needles is also missing. So I can’t work on my Noro striped scarf while I wait for my computer to do its thing…eeesh. These needle thieves are better organized than you thought ‘cos I’m in Texas. The conspiracy may have far-ranging implications. How many ‘backups’ is enough? Has anyone gotten a ransom note?
I’d bet money it was She of the Golden Shoes. Revenge is a dish best served cold.
I only used circulars when my Abyssinian cat kept pulling the straights out of my knitting – Tigger liked the clicking noise he could make with his teeth! My current batch of cats focus on the balls of yarn, so I am free to choose!
Good luck –
Do any of the upholstered items in your home eat needles like mine do? Whenever I am missing needles, guaranteed they are deep in the crevasses of my sofa.
Hello, may I add my first comment here?
You don’t need circs. You need longer straights.
My hardware store has wooden sticks (about 1m – good for three spindles, btw) from 2-10mm diameter. You’ll just need a little sharpener or even some sand paper and off you’ll go!
Good luck!
Your posts are part of my morning routine, read with a cup of coffee in hand. This one made me laugh out loud. Thanks for brightening my morning! Come on over – I’ll make some more coffee and loan you the circulars you need.
Clearly the needles have learned from the clothes hangers! Multiply when storage is a problem, disappear when needed. Talk about artificial intelligence!
It was a group of us from Madrona Fiber Arts–we are SICK AND TIRED of you showing up all fresh and haughty in a brand-new knitted whatever when the rest of us can barely manage to wash our Pacific NW fleece jackets for the event.
Yeah. Totally worth it.
So sorry you have been “robbed”….but come on down to Florida I have plenty to share!!
Forgot to mention– that little bit of garter stitch you show at the top of your entry is *stunning.* The colorplay in that yarn is da bomb.
Actually, it was a team of Ninjas from EC who were miffed about your window comment yesterday on Twitter.
I am doing the same project and have it on the 4.5 circs at this moment and NO I am not sharing them with you. It took me so long to find them in my house that I’m not letting them out of my sight!
I can’t shake the image of lots of blog readers thinking “Oh, I have a spare 4.5mm circular, I’ll send it to Stephanie!” and then in a few days time you get buried in a pile of padded envelopes all arriving in the mail…
You do realize that another meaning of “van” is as in vanguard? We in the van are the leading units at the head of an army.
Circulars rule. Straights drool. Repeat until convinced.
Dude, I have totally been there. Without the paranoia, that is. Or slightly less paranoia, perhaps. I was more convinced that the cat knocked them under the couch or something, you know?
At any rate, I am also an anti-circ. Long may we reign!
I think it’s something to do with the alignment of the planets. The last two (three?) years I have been in “lose mode”. What happened to my favorite scissors? My umbrella? sandals? earrings disappeared right out of my ears!etc., etc., etc. The new year started, and I have suddenly been thrust into “find mode”. I have found several things I thought were gone forever, one UNDER a bookshelf that hasn’t been moved since the day I set it up! Bizarre! Money, jobs, and maybe even a house are looming on the horizon…
I was laughing until someone translated 4.5 cm into US size 7s. Whoa. Spooky, ’cause mine are gone too. Size 7 circular needles go walkabout. They do. Maybe it is a middle-child kind of thing (not the teeny tiny oh-how-can-you-knit-with-those needles, not the humungous now-THOSE-are-knitting-needle ones) but they wander. You can’t imagine how many of those things I have bought but I NEVER have one when I need it. NEVER.
Is she talking about us?
Shh! And quit jostling me! I’ll drop a stitch, then it will be all your fault!
(I’ll give them back in exchange for a set of 5.5 mm dpns in rosewood)
Hmm. Is it possible that you have attracted wool elves? You know, like carpenter elves? They come when there is simply so much wool in a house that the owner must be in dire need of their services to knit up a few things — they could be making you sweaters, you know. Man, with all this snow, we need them!
Um. Might Lettuce Knit have 4.5mm circs? Just saying. 😉
Steph, I know you must know this, and have already thought of it, but no one offered this suggestion:
in the KP there is a little tag marked with needle sizes, giving you the “option” to remove needed tips from the cords, put the tag on the cord to ID the “taken” size, then put the stoppers on to the cords, then screw the needed tips onto a new cord, et voila!
how do I know this? I’ve been SO in your place SO many times it’s not even funny – and usually well after my LYS has closed for the night.
my 4.5s also have a way of going off to some club for the night as well, and come back in a day or two, hungover but never repentant! ;o)
Perhaps you could whittle a couple of pencils down to 4.5mm and connect them with an old phone cord or something. That’d show ’em 🙂
The messed up thing, cupcake, is that this happened last summer and you couldn’t find them THEN either.
“She’ll see the glory and the light of the one true needle” = LOL. I hope you find ’em soon!!!
The comment by Faith, up above, is right. The 4.5’s are missing to remind you that your gauge will be different on circulars. If I weren’t at work, I’d look through your blog and find that posting. You went from the body to the sleeve and your gauge changed. Remember?
The needles were trying to tell you.
Good luck!
I bet they’re with the tape measures, stitch markers and phillips head screwdrivers.
i’m fairly certain that i buy 5.0 mm for this very reason. straight. circular. short. long. wood. metal. i buy them because i fear that one day, i won’t have one.
funny thing is, i don’t knit a ton of stuff on them.
i think it’s a sickness.
Don’t be silly. Any knitter, even one who adores circulars as much as you enjoy straights (such as myself), would recognize that plotting such a conspiracy would squander valuable knitting time. Get serious. (haha)
I wondered, too, if your daughters had “borrowed” them. Have you tried asking St. Anthony for help? Or following the Buddhist way of releasing your attachment to them? Of just remembering that “Nothing is ever lost in the eyes of God”? I hope they show up soon.
I know where they are — hiding out with all of your tape measures. Maybe even started a little cross-item dating… Hmmm…
I’ve got a whole bunch of 4.5 circs you can borrow, but do you have a spare US #6 straight lying around? Mine have all been taken to the same place as your 4.5
Hey,
I have this recurring dream where I’ve gotten all of the needles out of all of the projects I’m working on (save you know, the plain pair of socks and maybe a blanket) and can finally see what the heck I’m missing. Occasionally I inventory; I come up with no help.
This is a size that a friend of mine has recently had trouble with and I was forced to lend her a bamboo pair since mine too appeared to be missing. I would be convinced that it is a world wide conspiracy; only I found a very short pair eventually. Of course it wouldn’t do you any good at 24″.
I tried unsuccessfully to trade single straight needles with people for a while. No help.
It’s the blue van on the corner, and we’re laughing so hard we’re almost peeing. We took some of your wool, too. You’ll find out which skeins soon enough.
You’re welcome.
It’s the blue van near the corner, and we’re all laughing so hard we’re almost peeing. We took some of your yarn, too. You’ll find out which skeins soon enough.
You’re welcome.
Oh, and your comment thingie has gone mental and is posting twice. We did that, too.
Hilarious. I face this same predicament often! I bought a set of Denise’s to solve the problem – not – I bought a second pink set of Denise’s, I bought two sets of extra cords. If I could just finish the garment and get the needles back into the case. But WIPs languish. I started putting post it notes on the case naming where said size needles were on what in progress garment so I could go twist them if needed! Ugh. It never works. When I need bamboo they’re busy, when I need turbos they are not existent, straights, circular, dpns, I have spent tons $$ on needles, now how come I can never find what I need when I want it. Don’t even get me started on crochet hooks. In short your needles are not alone in that van!
Have you checked your daughters’ stashes / projects? They’re my key suspects…
We have plenty in Florida, come to where the warm went.
I know, I know! They are where you put them all so you’d know where they were when you needed them. Now think? Where was that??? (I just hate when this happens)!
I am laughing so hard!! And what makes it even funnier is that I have a friend who uses the line “someone broke into the house and stole the……” Most often is is something needed in a recipe, the garlic, the jar of roasted peppers etc.
Very good post!
Did you look in the sofa?
“There they were, gone!” You took me right back to my high school years in New Hampshire with that one (and we will not mention how long ago it was). Well you can look upon it as another excuse to support your LYS when you buy more.
They must have a chapter in my city because I had the exact same experience when I was looking for circs for my top down cardigan. All the 4.5mm were missing.
As a passionately pro-circ knitter who would never, EVER deprive another knitter of her needles, let me ask you one thing: Have you forgotten about the hookers? We all know that they are deeply envious of our needles. And Steph? You must admit to an occasional bit of craftist humor. Perhaps you should post an apology. Or maybe leave an offering of cotton on your doorstep? Crochet is not technically evil, but crocheters are a different story.
What about your suitcases? Haven’t you been doing a lot of traveling recently? They’re probably all in there, with projects you haven’t finished yet (you know, the traveling projects) still attached.
Our van is *not* dumpy, gosh! It’s… vintage! Surely you can appreciate the difference?
I laughed out loud, today. They’ve been at my house in Australia but that time they stole all the 4.50mm straights, the cunning devils. Trying to stop us from seeing the link, I’ll bet!
It is not the circspeople, after all you called them knitting geniuses, so they must feel flattered being named that by you, our knitting guru. On what project did you use them last? Did you use them as a make-do pinning devise for seams on some object to try on? Are there bears around your house, I am thinking toothpicks. Anyway, what the house loses, the house will show up again, eventually, might take some time though. Did you not think about the obvious make-do solution? Find a pair of 4.5 mm fitting needlecaps, use a long dpn between your one point,one cap needles and voila, a mock circular. Just don’t forget to put the caps on eacht time you finished that needle! For a circ’s storing thingy you could nail a 23-rings metal strip on your wall, you know, that metal thing that is inside the folders where you put those seethrough maps into. Glue some numberbeads above the fangs with the right number and it wil look pretty too (out of cats and dogs and maybe Hanks reach of course) Oh no, Hank has nothing to do with this, he loved his last woolly gift. And please set up a lost and found needle emergency to swap circle in your town, because , you know, I think if it is those van-people after all, it started in the Netherlands, but they are not knitters, they are plants people, using straights to hold flower stalks of orchids upright, cables to bind the stalks to the straights and those short screw on needles from circs as poking in the earth devises to make holes for seeds. They even have a list, 4.5mm. is for sowing sweetpeas, so if you see flowering sweetpeas this summer, go ring the bell and ask.. eh, might be ruined from the poking, anyway, as soon as you have found something to go on happily knitting, they might reappear.
Perversely I was checking out my 4.5mm circs yesterday to start a lace shawl and found I have 3 sets. Pity I don’t live anywhere close I would have delivered them to you by hand. So sorry hope you get some very soon.
Now even though great minds think alike and I, too, am planning to get the February Lady Sweater started next week (no chance of quite such a luscious yarn as yours, but still!)…
the COWL???!!!
I had so hoped to slip that one inbetween, it is soooo cold, I have the perfect yarn ready, please please have pity and give us the pattern?!!
😉 with sugar on top?
Thanks!!
I just saw that van drive by my house!
I have some serious questions, though. Did you learn how to spin on a drop spindle or did you dive right into a wheel? Is it much, much easier to keep the right tension using a wheel? (I am trying to convince my husband that we really need a spinning wheel.)
I think that your missing 4.5s are probably hanging out with my 4s, the only ones I had (note the use of past tense) in a country where circular needles are second to impossible to find.
Now I bought myself (actually, “invited someone to buy me”) a set of interchangeable needles. Bliss.
And I hope you find yours. FLS+mental sanity obligent!
I guess I read too many mommy blogs, because when I read “pro-circ knitters” at the end of this, I couldn’t help but wonder, “What does a knitter’s opinion on circumcision have to do with this post?” LOL
I am hysterical! What a great way to start my day. Thanks for the great account of your most recent disaster…hope you get those culprits. Still laughing………
OMG! The’ve been to my house too! Someone came in to teach me a lesson the other day and stole, ALL of my lace yarn!!!! All of it, gone… I’ve torn this house apart 3 times searching for it. I know this is someone’s way of smacking me back for the 52 pair plunge that I was so smug about. 52 pairs of socks in 52 weeks, uh huh… we’ll show her… just wait until she gets the uncontrollable urge to do a delicate shawl… It’s driving me insane!!!
Hmmm, I have always wondered what happened to my size 7 24″ addi. I have an empty package for it.
I have to admit it – mea culpa and all that. It was me. Well, I suppose it must have been because when I was looking for 5.0mm’s the other day, *all* I could find was 4.5’s. I didn’t even know I had so many, so I reckon some of them must have been yours.
It’s the only explanation.
Moi x x x
I have to admit it – mea culpa and all that. It was me. Well, I suppose it must have been because when I was looking for 5.0mm’s the other day, *all* I could find was 4.5’s. I didn’t even know I had so many, so I reckon some of them must have been yours.
It’s the only explanation.
Moi x x x
You are so funny. I think your needles are being held ransom until you make the cowl pattern available. I asked Abby for her help. You’ll see the needles fly outta that van when you surrender that cowl pattern to knit with just a little precious handspun.
You are so funny. I think your needles are being held ransom until you make the cowl pattern available. I asked Abby for her help. You’ll see the needles fly outta that van when you surrender that cowl pattern to knit with just a little precious handspun.
I must say: I love your sophisticated temporary storing unit. How does your cat handle that temptation. My cat loves circ’s, to try and eat them, that is.
I think they’re all with your measuring tapes.
I wanna be an evil knitting genius!
This is completely off the topic at hand, but I have to write it anyway. I recently finished a masculine version of the Daisy Sweater (green and blue stripes instead of snakes) for my new grandson, and in the photo of you posted with the pattern you look very much like Temperence Brennan on Bones (which has replaced Law and Order as my favorite knitting tv show). I think she’s stunning, so that’s a compliment. Have you ever noticed that? Do you even know what I’m talking about? Enough from me–now back to conspiracy theory.
So? Did you find them as soon as you bought another pair or WHAT? Cause that’s what happens to me…. EVERYTIME…
I’m glad I’m not the only one who has people come into their house and steal the needles they really, really need for their next project!! I don’t know why the RCMP haven’t found that person or group yet. I hope they drop every second stitch using my needles. I like knitting with both, the only time I don’t is socks, I still find I can knit faster and better on my 4 or 5 little sticks than with 1 or 2 circulars, sorry Cat but thats how I feel. I love your books and blog Steph, keep it up, you make me laugh and cry all at once.
when I looked up the ‘Daisy Sweater'” that Laura G said at 12.49pm, your bio states:
“and looks forward to the day when she can own her own sheep.”
Is this still on you ‘want to do’ list?
oh hai! Gramma taught me on straight needles, she was a straight needle knitter – single or double pointed. That’s how they raised ’em back in Scotland. So, I was a singlepoint straight, armpit knitter (righty) for many, many years. Until I broke my collar bone on the left side. I had 2 projects going – I could hardly lift my left hand. Going circular saved me, I could rest my hands in my lap and throw and only had to move the left below the wrist. By the time I was healed, I was a circular convert – no matter what the pattern. Life throws you a curve sometimes (nuc-nuc-nuc).
Holy shit! Where do you come up with this stuff? You are absolutely hilarious. I wish I had a 10th of the talent you have to write about such things. But, I am just boring and dull…. Ah well.
Good luck anyway. Did you check the girls’ rooms? Or maybe Joe has been knitting in secret?
A friend told me about a radio show she heard today. The topic was stupid things you’ve seen drivers doing behind the wheel. Somebody called in and said he had just seen a woman knitting while driving. No, not at a stoplight–she was using her knees to steer the car and knitting while the car was in motion! I’m fairly certain this is the height of knitting obsession. (I am hoping this isn’t true.)
*snort* Well, I do hope that you find the dirty little culprit.
Heh. Heh-heh. Heh-heh-heh….
I would lol, only I’m in a public computer lab.
I’ve always known that there are knitting geniuses in the world, many, in fact, but EVIL knitting geniuses? It never occured to me! I mean evil and knitting just don’t seem to go together. I can hardly get my brain to go there. But if the Yarnharlot herself says so it must be true. I now live in fear!
It is nice to know these things run through other people’s minds as well. You are wonderfully funny. Thanks for sharing !
“I look in the package and there it was… Gone”
Brilliant!
Thank you for making me laugh.
Wow. I just had a virtually identical experience with my February Lady’s Sweater.
Who has all the 4.5 mm???
I went nuts this week looking for MY 4.5 mm 16″ (circular, alas) needle, because I’m in a hat phase. Ended up having to buy a new one. Again. This seems to happen regularly. Somewhere there is a pile of 4.5 mm circulars, formerly mine.
Oh…I may have received a black-market 4.5mm. The leader of the school knitting club gave it to me. It’s too late to mail it back now; I don’t know to whom it belonged. (I don’t think I could, anyway. That’s my favorite needle. But this happened to me when I lost my 6.5mm.)
I think it happened during the washing machine and kitchen renovations. I swear I saw one of the workers with very strange tools sticking out of their toolbelts…
We must unite to stop such blatant persecution of knitters before it’s too late. Let’s meet to discuss at our LYS. We can organize there and plan our defense… BTW, bring money, we’ll most likely get distracted by the new spring colors and buy an extra set of 4.5 circs… just in case we’re next on the hit list… Cabin fever is a terrible thing…
Sock Summit sounds like it’s going to be such a blast. I can’t wait!
Oh my!
And they’ve been to my house, and stole all my 3.75mm circs, which I went looking for when a bamboo set came apart!
I looooovvveee wooden needles, they’re so much warmer.. but.. there was nary a cold metal 3.75mm to be found while I waited for the glue to dry on my poor disjointed bamboo one..
It IS a conspiracy, isn’t it? 😉
I sympathize with the loss of the 4.5 mm circ needles. When I was a child I had 10 decks of cards (loved playing solitaire), and my sister took the 8 of spades out of every one of them.
I took them. So now you’ll have to come back to the Bay Area to claim them, and soon.
Ah, too bad for us!