Yeah there are a lot of circulars that crop up in a local craft reuse store near me, so I’ve been surfing different brands to figure out what I like! I do see why people love their chiaogoos

They’re very fun!

Because everyone explains it slightly differently, and one explanation or another finally stuck!

But kudos for playing with it for four hours, that’s great persistence in the face of frustration. You’ll nail it soon I am confident

Have you used DPNs before?

Can you say what wasn’t working about it? I think my major problems were getting tension right in between the two needles, and of course the original issue of just kinda wrapping my head around what’s happening. I found it helpful to watch a bunch of different YouTube videos of people doing it

These were knit on 40” size 0 needles, which are *not* the cheap interchangeables. Such a better knitting experience, woof! But I’m new enough at knitting I haven’t invested in needles I’ll regularly need — just secondhand stuff from the reuse store, and this one set of interchangeables, and those!

I am honored!! 😆

I think I tend to ladder a bit worse with magic loop but I’m using cheap interchangeable circulars for this sweater and they may not be quite long enough to do magic loop properly anyway, so it could be a tool problem rather than a technique problem, not sure

I was pulling from both outside and inside of each ball of yarn, which did not help The Tangles, of which there were many.

I don’t mind DPNs like I thought I would, though. I’ve switched to using them for baby sweater sleeves despite instructions calling for magic loop

I did them two-at-a-time on a super long circular! I recommend this if you are, like me, very unlikely to do an identical second sock. I do not recommend this if you, like me, have accidentally wound your yarn into an unconscionable tangle while trying out a new ball winder

There was not *zero* swearing at the heels, but the top section actually gave me the most trouble — my tension was too tight and I had to redo about four inches of each sock 🤦🏻‍♀️

Some species are parthenogenetic?? Some are super asymmetrical in the junk department??? The moms pack their eggs with pre-digested dirt so the babies have immediate access to microbial symbionts that help them digest their foods (honestly so practical why don’t we do that)

Also Franz one of our side-quests yesterday was looking for a specific kind of stick insect that lives in Douglass fir trees and while we did not find any (yet) they are Delightfully and Extremely Weird www.bugguide.net/node/view/50...

I love them very much

The sunburst of a tanoak nut cap

Lung lichen veins, at their dryest but ready to swell back to life next time the marine layer reaches them

A teenier tinier forest of Cladonia sp. lichens

The light shining through and around these Douglass fir trunks

This endemic chaparral pea still doggedly blooming into September

The secret gold undersides of these chinquapin leaves