I normally knit/crochet stuff that doesn't have to be a particular size - blankets, scarves, etc. because I find getting the tension right is such a headache (pardon the pun!)
It's not so much the faffing about, I'm not entirely opposed to a bit of faffing, it's the nagging fear that I've got it wrong and I'm going to end up frogging something I've spent ages on because it's the wrong size. This fear has its roots in some bad experiences I've had in the past; I seem to be capable of knitting completely different tension in the tension swatch to the actual project - eek!
Sometimes I just think "f*&k it", make the project with the suggested needle size, and everything turns out fine. Other times ...
... Actually, I can't think of a time when that's gone wrong, except the slouchy beanie I tried to make the other day which was big enough for a tiny tears doll (that likes pain!) but my spidey sense tells me that I followed the pattern wrong on that occasion.
But
butbutbut
the tension square for the long socks with the suggested needles was too small, with the next size up still too small, 1mm larger and it's pretty much bang on. Now, I'm fairly sure I knit looser when I knit in the round, but I don't know how much looser. What to do? What to do? What to do?
I have decided to go with the larger, correct-in-the-tension-swatch, needles, telling myself that at worst I'll have a pair of slouchy baggy socks, which as I'm planning to wear them inside boots won't be such a bad thing. It'd be worse, I tell myself, to end up with a too-small sock. Also, the size options in the pattern are 38-40 or 41-42 - I'm a 40 so I'm making the 38-40 with needles that might turn out to be too big.
Makes sense, right?
Please say yes!
-x-
