Damn and blast it!

i was speaking to Mum on the phone the other day and she was telling me that she's successfully used a circular needle for the FIRST TIME EVER!! I know, it took me a while to absorb the information too! So we carried on chatting and i was slagging off her needle cos it's a very vintage Aero or similar with the tough curly cord and i said she should try Harmonies... one thing led to another and i said "well, that's your Mother's Day present sorted" :oD

I duly hopped on Get Knitted's website and ordered her a set of 3.5mm and 4mm tips, plus an 80cm and a 100cm cord. I also ordered myself a 3mm set of tips for The Shawl although in hindsight it should have been a set of 3.25mm tips, but anyway by the time i realised my error it was too late and the parcel had been despatched. The postie delivered it today and i couldn't wait to get The Shawl onto a nice long cord (as opposed to the 60cm needle i've been using, awkward with over 300 stitches on it, you know!) but as i took the tips out of the pack i thought they felt different, they aren't as shiny as the Harmonies. I thought that the only difference was the name but it would appear not as no sooner had i knitted The Shawl onto the new needles that i realised the join is RUBBISH! It might not look much, but my delicate laceweight wool is snagging and my knitting is even more slow going than before because i have to be more careful! GRR!

However, i can only praise the lovely lady ispoke to at Get Knitted, she said they will send me out a new set of tips and if they include a return envelope i should send them back, and if they don't then i can keep them! Obviously keeping them would only mean that i have an emergency set of 3mm tips as i really wouldn't want to knit for any length of time with them, but i'm now wondering if anyone has had any luck with sanding them down? I know nothing aobut laminated wood so i shall discuss it with Bloke as he's something of a carpenter, if i can get him to stop talking about the van for long enough LOL

The Shawl is now 20" long from neck to point and that's not blocked, so i think i am going to do another two repeats and call it a day. I don't want to keep MiL waiting any longer if truth be told, and i do actually enjoy knitting The Shawl but it's become something of a chore and that is not a good thing - i will try and plan knitted gifts a bit better in future and give myself LONGER to complete them in!! I must also remember it definitely takes longer than a month to knit a laceweight shawl and i should only do it for very special people, like my MiL ;o)