What a Difference a Needle Makes

I started the awesome Bellatrix socks by Gigi Silva in my own Merino Monkey "Bela Lugosi's Dead" yarn last week. The pattern calls for size 2 needles, but I thought that would make too a loose fabric. So I went down to a size 1. Here's what I got:



It just wasn't working for me. It made the yarn look ugly and the sock all baggy. I wasn't happy. So I ripped back to the cuff and started over with size 0 needles( I prefer 0's for socks anyhow). Here's what I got:


How much better is that? The ridges stand out. There's structure. I don't even care that I had to rip out 50 rows of knitting. Here's where I am now:



Ahhhh. These will be for my sister-in-law who, as far as I know, doesn't know I have a blog. She's a recovering goth chic, and a Harry Potter fan, so I thought the combination would be perfect for her!