The Yarn Garden is so conveniently located! Just a hop, skip and jump across the Hawthorne Bridge from work. So yesterday I paid a little visit to The Yarn Garden after work, just to see what kind of needles they had in stock. I was getting desparate to replace the Crystal Palace needles I started the Wildefoote socks with.

I picked up a pair of addi Natura 16″ circular needles in 2US. And here’s an interesting observation… The Crystal Palace 2US are 2.75 mm. The addi Natura 2US are 3.0 mm, which my needle guage calls a “small 3US” or maybe a 2-1/2. The Clover 3US that I have are 3.25.

Rather than starting over, since a pair of figure-8 cast-ons were a bear to do, I decided to just go with the flow and see if the extra .25 mm made that much of a difference in my gauge. So far, after about 10 rounds, it doesn’t appear obvious to the naked eye. The gauge is slightly looser, but that can be handled by adjusting the number of toe increases. I think I’m OK.

I’m almost finished with the toe increases and trying to decide whether to use a pattern on the instep. I’ll try to get a pic up tomorrow.

I’m liking the addi Naturas. The cable never twists and the joins are smooth. So far I haven’t had any problem with snagging. The needles themselves are quite a bit shorter than the Crystal Palace needles, and that makes it easier to work in tight places.

So I guess I’ll be putting off my excursion to Woodland Wool Works.

Darn.