The Ugly Duckling

Hi Knitters,

The "awful" picture above is in fact the draft of Op. 4 scarf.
Yes, it is.  I admit that I am never good at drawing.

I just bought the Rowan yarns from a local yarn store, then I didn't know what to do.
Hahaha...Then I decided to make a draft and test on the iPad app called SketchPro.  It was fun.

Well, I did know that I wanna knit a scarf.  Then I thought of making some bobbles.  Yes, the dark dots you see represent bobbles.  Then I wanna add some nice border.  Cable knitting then came up to my mind.  See the curves I drew..............

The result, as you can see here, is quite different.  They are not even in scale.  Ugly Duckling then became a Swan!!!

"I never dreamed of such happiness as this, while I was an ugly duckling."

I am surprised and very happy too.  You may want to meet the swan here:

http://eatinglemonknitknitknit.blogspot.com/2012/12/op-4.html

P.S. I forgot to mention in previous blog that I knitted with my beloved Takumi Velvet needles.

Thank you very much and

HAPPY KNITTING

Takumi Velvet needles

I love Takumi Velvet needles.  The price of it is a bit more than the Takumi, but it is definitely worth the price.  (Velvet will be called for Takumi Velvet and Takumi for the original Takumi for the rest of the blog for convenience's sake)  The pair of circular needles was bought for a year in a yarn store in San Mateo.  I used this pair to knit a few scarfs and a hat already, and I'm very satisfied with it.

Velvet is polished even more profoundly than the Takumi, thus it makes Velvet more smooth to knit with.  The cord is made of a tougher material, which can hold your knits which weight more.   

For beginners, I would say Takumi would be a better choice:  it is lower in price, and easy to knit with.  Velvet , in my opinion, is made for more experienced knitters, who would like to speed up the knitting a little.

Interestingly, Velvet is not commonly obtainable in yarn stores.  Are they still too new to the US market?  Or is there a problem in supply?