In Which the Pirate Ponders Speckles and Pooling.

I started the Wild Tide socks with the slip stitch pattern on the new Flexi-Flip needles, and I feel as if I’ve almost knit enough of the leg to form an opinion of them. Unfortunately, I’m not sure it’s a very good opinion…

I’m used to knitting my socks with five DPNs, so figuring out how to hold two needles that were basically folding in half was an interesting challenge. The first few changeovers from one needle to the next were really awkward, but I think I’m getting the hang of it. It’s kind of like how I *can* knit socks with just four DPNs, but I find five more comfortable. Maybe after I’ve knit the rest of the sock, they’ll feel more at home in my hands.

I like that the needles have one pointier side and one more blunt, but I definitely prefer the pointier side, and that means remembering to turn each one around as it comes free of the stitches and becomes the next working needle. It would be better if the two sides were two different colours, to make it easier to quickly tell which is which.

With my usual sock knitting method, I “rotate” the sock every few rounds by knitting a few extra stitches onto each needle, which helps to minimize any laddering. With the Flexi-Flips, there are only three needles, and the first and last few stitches of each one are so awkward that I can’t imagine how one would easily do that.

At least the sock looks nice! There are some definite laddering issues at both sides where the needles don’t meet well, but I think they should work their way out in the wash. I’m quite pleased with the stitch pattern and how it’s breaking up the spiral pooling a little bit without hiding it completely.

Meanwhile, since I didn’t buy anything at MD Sheep and Wool, I felt very little guilt about making a post-festival purchase from Etsy.

I got these two skeins of Malabrigo Sock (top: 120 Lotus; bottom: 863 Zarzamora) at two separate shops about a year apart from each other, thinking (at the times) that sock yarn makes the best souvenirs… but never considering that they might go together.

Then, as knitters are wont to do, I started thinking that maybe they *should* go together. But when I pulled them out of the sock yarn tote and looked at them in the same light, I realized how close in value they were. So what they *really* needed, I concluded, was a skein of speckled yarn that pulled colours from both of them as a go-between. Then I found this Sheeps Clothing Yarn Co. Fable Fingering in Nebula Speckle, and knew that it was Just Right.

No idea *how* they’re going to go together just yet (a shawl, perhaps?) but whooo! This is just the most perfect addition, isn’t it?