Get your kicks on Route 866

866.

That's right.  Not 865, 866.

I got The Other to count the stitches last night, as I didn't trust myself to do it.  After a bit of counting and ticking off groups of ten or eleven, he turned to me and asked if I was supposed to have a group of twelve.

Nope.  Uh-uh.

I stuck one of those Clover stitch thingees in it, and he kept on going.  In the end, he decided that there were -- wait for it -- 865 stitches.

And I decided that this made absolutely no sense, because, of course, there was that group of twelve, which meant that unless I'd missed out somewhere else and picked up a group of nine, then I had to have one stitch too many.  The Other re-did his math, and came up with 865 stitches.  I counted the stitch markers on the bottom, and realized he'd counted one too many groups of ten, and in the end it all worked out to 866 stitches.

And then, this morning, just to be sure, I sat down and counted it all myself.

Sure enough, 866.

And now it makes sense why I had a hard time knitting up ten stitches instead of nine in the last edging repeat.  So, I'll just rip out the last one, make it a group of nine, and voilà, 865 stitches.

I've knitted up the stitches on an 80cm Aero needle.  I still love those Aero points, but the stitches keep catching on the join, and it is *really* irritating.  And although the 80cm needle is perfectly serviceable, I think I'd be much happier with a 100 or 120 cm needle instead, so that means a trip into Toronto to the One Store I Vowed to Never Shop in Again, because they're the only ones so far who seem to have them.  Sigh.  Never say never, because it just comes back to bite you on the tuchus.

The Other has suggested that he drop me somewhere for a coffee and go himself to get the needle, so I don't have to break my vow.  But since we now know he can't count, how can we be sure he will get the right needle?  How can we ever trust him again?  Obviously he doesn't have the Moral Authority to govern.

I mean, to buy needles.  That's it.  To buy needles.

Comments

[The Other]

S'whatcha get for Talking To The Driver While The Counting Is In Motion.

After all, The Other is easily distra... Hey, didja see that? Over there, outside the window... um, where was I again?

Oh, yeah... "One, two, many..." And Herself says I can't count.

The Other would also like to point out that he does rather know something about buying pointy sticks, though mainly for flinging from his bow at paper archery targets trying to turn them into "Oooo, pretty, lace!". With varying degrees of success...

So how hard could it be for The Other to walk into the Store Whose Name Shall Not Be Spoken and buy an Inox circular deuce and a quarter that's at least 100 cm long?

Piece of cake... (er, perhaps not the best phrase to use with Herself, since we've seen the Billy Crystal movie "Forget Paris" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113097/ )

Yr fthfl srvnt,

T.O.

[Ted]

Um...mailorder? I've heard that it's often reliable.

I'm using whatever brand of needle I'm using (Inox?) and am having problems with stitches sticking at the join of the cable and the needle. In fact, griping the needle in my right hand, using the left to shove the stitches past the join, resulted in a near blister on my right index finger on Sunday.

Somewhere, Sharon writes about using a dusting of talcum powder on the hands...something about how it'll help the stitches slip along the needle. I'm wondering if it'll help with getting them over the join.

It has me wondering, though, how I knitted lace on size 1.5mm circulars, because I don't remember this problem when I was working those damn doilies. (?)

[k]

I had thought about mail order, then figured I'd just get them in that length locally, but Cloth and Clay was sold out. So now I'm at the point of wanting to work on it, and don't want to wait for mail order.

But I was planning on getting an Inox. So much for solving the problem of getting the stitches over the join.

In my case, it's so bad that I can't actually knit. I've set it aside again, because it was turning into a huge struggle.

I've never had this problem before. Never.