Guage Shock

That's what I've been experiencing, trying to adjust to knitting on size 1 needles after using size 10's for the last several weeks. In fact I seriously doubt I've ever knit anything before with less than size five needles. I think I actually winced a little when I first picked up the needles in my LYS. (It's not like I already had this size.)

I dutifully knit up a swatch to check my guage which also served to give me a little practice with the tiny needles and yarn. Come to think of it, I can't even remember the last time I did that - knitting up a swatch. When I took up knitting again a couple of years ago, I decided to start with quick, easy projects like scarves. After a few of those I jumped right into felting. Hardly the sort of knitting that requires a guage check. But gloves - obviously I need to try to get it right.

Anyway I'm happy to be working on something that requires nice even tension. I was afraid that the projects I was working on before were allowing me to be a "sloppy" knitter. Maybe all that knitting I did, not having to worry about being so precise, really just allowed me to get the feel for knitting again after taking a break for so many years. In any case I think it's good to push myself to try new things and conquer my knitting fears. This time it's the tiny guage. Next time, who knows? Maybe a really big, involved project like a sweater. We'll see.