How I learned to stop worrying and love the spit splice

I finished the husband sweater last night. Well, all except for sewing the collar hem down, and weaving in a few ends.

And then I made him try it on.

And then I realized it was a boatneck sweater. Good for the French Navy, perhaps, but not really the most flattering look with saddle shoulders.

So I ripped it back to the first saddle, and am now adding more rows to that.

That's the bad news.

The good news:

I'm reknitting using these.

The new Knitpicks Harmony Options set. Yum! They arrived yesterday morning, and I immediately started playing. The colors are beautiful--more subdued than they look on the Knitpicks site--and the joins are smooth. The needles are, too--a little bit of grab, which will be nice for lace, but no problems at all with the joins. This is my first set of interchangeable needles--the first set that I thought had everything I wanted in an interchangeable needle. I mainly knit flat, but I'm slowly starting to see the light on knitting in the round. (I'm a bit late to this party, I know!)

So I'm joining the growing chorus of thumbs up for the Harmony Options. My only complaints (and they're very small) echo the ones that Amy Singer mentioned in her review on Knitty (scroll down about a third of the way for the review): the sizes aren't on the tips, so I'll probably get another needle-sizer to keep in the Options bag. The sizes aren't on the bag, either, so I may keep them on the card until I figure out a way to put the sizes on the bag.

I would have also liked it if the length was on the cards that came in the bags with the cables--I know I'll wind up taking them all out, but it would be nice if initially I could have seen that I had all the sizes I'd ordered. (I order the 40", 47", and 60" cables to go with the ones included in the set.)

One thing that I particularly loved: When I ripped the sweater back, I picked up the stitches using a size 4 tip, to make it easier to grab the live stitches. Once they were on the cable, I switched back to the size (7) I'm using for the sweater, and voila! I was good to go.

I know this last is a feature of all interchangeable needles, and not specific to the Harmony Options, but it's a new one for me, and I really really like it.

I think that--now that I'm properly outfitted!--there will be at least one more seamless hybrid on the needles soon; maybe a Christmas sweater for my brother. And I've got the Tangled Yoke sweater from the Fall 07 IK in my queue, and the yarn I need for it in the stash. I've even got some great buttons for it!

A few balls of Knit Picks Shine also came home with me, but I haven't taken a picture yet. Apple Green, and destined to be a baby sweater.