I bet many of you remember the Burger King ad campaign touting the idea that they would “do it your way”. Here at Signature we get requests fairly often for unusual things and try to help when we can—even if it is only to let a prospective customer know that yes we can do something, but the cost will be prohibitive.
But, many times we CAN do something unusual. For example, our circulars can be made to any unusual length. In the past few weeks we had 2 unusual requests that really jumped out at us.
A customer who has been very supportive and purchased many things asked us if we could do a special circ for her. She wanted one side to be a size 5 and 1 side to be a size 7. When I emailed to ask why here is what she said:
Since it is the right needle that controls gauge, it is helpful with certain types of knitting if the left needle is smaller — since you are always going in the same direction with circs, the left is always the left! A smaller needle on the left lets the yarn glide by more easily. This is especially helpful when the knitting involves stitches like k1,p1,k1 in same stitch, or kf&b — or any other kind of knitting where things can get a bit tight. Stiletto points are great for this kind of thing (as mentioned by many people who love their Sigs), so I thought it’d be even more perfect if the left needle is smaller! This is a great benefit of exchangeable needles because you can attach different size needles to each end. Other than the ability to do this, I don’t really like exchangeables but this is a big benefit! I really like my Signatures so since you offer some customization, I was hoping you’d be able to do this!
I think you’ll find many knitters interested in this; as I said this is not my bright idea, I’ve seen it talked about in many blogs by many knitters and Ravelers. Cat Bordhi mentions this technique in her moebius cast on video —
Just to be absolutely clear, this only works when you’re actually knitting in the round, not using circs to knit flat.
And then I asked our Canadian Cousin and designer/teacher extraordinaire Kate Atherley (www.wisehildaknits.com) and here is what she said:
And on to the question. Yes! There are actually two scenarios – some people do naturally have different gauge on knits vs. purls. You can see this on the back of stocking stitch – two of the purl bumps are close together, two of them are spaced apart. It’s called “rowing out”. People do compensate by using two different size needles, although two sizes does seem an extreme difference.
- the left needle – is a bit smaller than the needle you’re working them with – the right.
Some of you very observant readers noticed these on the blog from the 4th of July.
A second email came with a heartrending scenario. Can we, will we, replace a set of circulars which has been chewed by a cat? The answer is yes and before you read further you will all be glad to know that Little Ted still is among us.
This sad email arrived:
I am devastated! My adorable four-month old kitten called ‘Little Ted’ managed to get hold of my circular needles and has chewed the cord (in two places the cord is virtually severed). Is there any way that I could return the needles to you to have a new cord put on please. It’s a good job that I love him so much, nobody else would have got away with doing that to my beloved Signature needles.
Our answer was YES that we could do the repair at a reasonable price and she replied:
Oh, you don’t know how relieved I am to read that you might be able to repair them. No, fortunately, he hasn’t damaged the metal needle stalks. If you would like ‘Little Ted’ to do any ‘destruction testing’ on your products, please just let me know.
Of course I emailed to ask if her story could be part of this blog and she answered:
I have no problem with you using the story, hopefully it will be a warning to other Signature circular needle users who have cats and I am sure it will bring a smile to readers’ faces – even when the trauma brought tears to mine. Little Ted is blissfullyunaware of all the problems he has caused and I am sure he would be excited if he knew that he was about to go “global”.
Here is “Little Ted”—who may not love Burger King sandwiches, but does love Signatures.
We didn’t get a picture in time of Little Ted but we found this one:
