You CAN Teach an Old Dog New Tricks!

Yesterday was a wonderful day! I successfully learned the "Magic Loop" method for knitting a pair of socks on a single needle. It's really cool and quite a unique approach.

It makes you wonder how people thought these things up....perhaps a favorite canine had run off with some of the wooden DPN needles? When my dog, Sandy, was a puppy, she thought my Crystal Palace Bamboo DPNs (that I was using for my FIRST pair of socks) were special "doggie sticks". She stole two of them proceeded to chew them up! Luckily, I had been working on the heel flap, so I only had 3 needles with "live" stitches and she "stole" the two empty needles. (Smart dog!) This did, however, slow down the completion of my first sock. I had to wait until the next morning to trek out to the yarn shop in search of more. Needless to say, I now typically buy TWO sets at a time....just in case!

I still prefer the double points, but I'm really glad I learned this method. I'd heard so much about it and was curious about how it works. (I knit much slower on circs than I do on DPNs....which may be the reason for my preference.)

I even mananged to work in 1 1/4 hrs. of spinning last night as well. Wahoo! I'm definitely trying to stick to my goal of spinning for 5 hrs. per week for the Summer Spinning Challenge! I decided to spin my Coral colored Merino top since it was handy (in the family room where the TV is....setup and ready to go!). I do need to ply my two bobbins of the blue Merino multi that I'm spinning for my mom's scarf before Monday, when I go to my usual spinning group (Spinning on Mondays does NOT count toward my goal of 5 hrs. per week).