New Acquaintances

First of all: since we are talking New, we need to talk new yarn a bit!
I think it is always a happy moment to introduce the new friends we recently brought home to live with us... So, meet my new pals:

This one on the left is a good old acquaintance of mine (and probably your's too) I always have at least one Zauberball in my stash, because when a quick and fun striping effect is needed they never let me down: either in socks, shawls or on my funky grandpa! 

So, when I checked the website of Zauberball's maker, Schoppel-Wolle, and saw that they have a new similar make out there (this one is even 100% wool), I had to have it!! It is called XL Kleckse and is very soft (much more than the original Zauberball). It doesn't really have colour changes per se, but one colour in different intensity, an ombre effect of some sort. I can't wait to try it out in some stripes!

These guys up here are from Schoppel's Cat Print Hand Dye Collection: 6 Karat (80% wool and 20% silk) and have a lovely sheen that must look really gorgeous when knitted up! 
I especially love the green with the blue hues (colourway: Froschkönig - King of Frogs!!!). 
Well, it definitely feels and looks like it is something a royal amphibian would be happy to be clad in.

And I got some summery yarn, too: Leinen Los (70% wool & 30% linen) is a sport weight yarn that knits up with a nice hand and will be gorgeous in a draped garment. One can feel the linen much more in the grey yarn, which has more of a papery feel than the cream one. 

As you can see in the swatch I am thinking of mixing those two to make a high contrast striped "thing"... hopefully ready to wear in spring!

The last I got was this different, natural sock yarn called Alb Socke. The wool is locally sourced from Swabian Jura in Germany and it also has 15% linen in it - So there is no synthetic fibre in this sock yarn: The main reason I wanted to try it out, since I was keen on finding an alternative to the nylon that is usually mixed into sock yarn, to give it durability and longevity.

It's true that the linen gives this sock yarn a very different feel - my ordinary sock yarn feels much more "plasticky" than this one, which is soft but firm!
And I knitted my little swatch of Alb Socke with my new, tiny, short circular needles!
After hearing so much about the merits of knitting socks with 9inch circulars, I had to try them out myself and bought a bunch of them...

I can't really say that I am convinced, though.... they are so tiny that one needs to hold them very differently. After knitting about 20 minutes with these little fellows I felt a slight pain in my fingers, for the first time ever since I knit! Either I am getting old or It might very well be that I am not at all used to holding the needles like that and that my hands are not relaxed at all while knitting...  I definitely need to give them a chance though and see how it goes.

Up to this point, I am still quicker with my DPNs and working with them feels much more natural and easy on my hands. The good thing with the small circulars is that one doesn't get any laddering at all (since the knitting goes round and round). Bad thing is that I need stitch markers to mark the beginning of the round and to differentiate the insole from the top part of the sock... something that my DPNs were showing me at one glance before.

Besides the HiyaHiya sharps I have bought the Addi Premium (with the golden cord) and the stainless steel HiyaHiya (with the bend needle, which by the way I am not sure about either at the moment), in different needle sizes and 9 inch and 12 inch cords...

So, which are the short circulars you like best (if you are liking them at all)? 
And if so, why do you prefer them to DPNs?
I think that I am still on the fence with these...

But they definitely gain a big, important point because of their cuteness-factor!!!!!
(especially the HiyaHiya sharps with their teal coloured cord)

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