Theodora KAL Day 1

Yesterday was the start of the VintagePurls Theodora Knit-A-Long (KAL) at Ravelry. I'm using the gorgeous Empress colourway that Morag designed specifically for this KAL.

This going to be an experience full of firsts.

• First KAL - not sure if I'll keep up but I'm going to have fun trying
• First Vintage Purls pattern - great design and the instructions are clear so far
• First Vintage Purls order & yarn - customer service was great, speedy arrival, beautifully packaged - it was like opening a gift. The yarn is a fabulous colour and is lovely to knit with.
• First sock on a circular needle - I watched this video to learn how to wrangle the circular needle and I seem to have the hang of it. Now I see why people get fussy about the quality of their knitting needles, when I learnt to knit there was no choice, a needle was a needle. The transition between the cable and the needle on this set is not smooth and I have to fiddle to slide my stitches back onto the needle part. To be fair I really didn't have a choice without ordering via the internet and I didn't have time. The local knitting shops didn't have small enough circulars, one shop which I usually avoid told me that I wouldn't get a 2.25 and that would be too tight for 4ply and that I should move up to a 2.75 which she happened to have in stock. How to drive away potential customers in one easy lesson.

So far all is going well. The photo was taken around lunch-time yesterday. As it was a rainy day the family wanted to watch Avatar on DVD which was perfect for extra knitting time. I managed to complete about 5 pattern repeats before I realised my hands were cramping and I was over-doing it. The lace design looks very effective, though it caused a moment of consternation when I had to drop a stitch! No matter how deliberate it is, dropping stitches goes against the grain.