Pokémon and Fantasy Football
I absolutely refuse to feel strange anymore for devoting so many of my post-college brain cycles to Pokémon. I’ve had the privilege of watching a group of guys in my office play fantasy football, and I’ve come to the conclusion that the two hobbies aren’t really all that different. Whereas I might have a discussion about whether someone would be willing to trade me an Ekans in exchange for a Sandshrew, I’ve routinely heard these fellows discussing the relative merits/stats of the players they “drafted”.
I finally got to go to the yarn store today, and while I was extremely unlucky in finding another skein of baby alpaca yarn to match the skein that I’ve nearly turned into a sock, Barbara, the proprietor of Yarnworks was nice enough to put that particular color on her next order with promises to call me when it comes in. I bought the yarn for Karen’s birthday present while I was at the store. Karen asked for a nice warm pair of socks to combat the cold winters there in Tottori, so I bought a couple of skeins of Kureyon in what I considered to be an absolutely yummy series of colors. I also bought a pair of Susan Bates size six DPNs to try out since I needed a smaller set of needles for the sock ribbing anyway. My size three bamboo DPNs have a nice semi-permanent bend to them after having knit nearly all of my baby alpaca sock. The metal needles might discourage me from gripping so hard.
I apparently like to knit at a tighter gauge that the ladies at the yarn store. When I asked Barbara what size of DPNs she recommended for the Kureyon, she mentioned a size nine. I’ve heard one of the other ladies at the store recommend a ten for the same yarn. When I knit my first scarf, I used size seven needles with the Kureyon. That’s my intention with Karen’s birthday socks as well. I think that the tighter fabric just looks more professional in some strange way.