Since I have to be out early again tomorrow, and since I was already late once this week, I’m posting tomorrow’s post tonight :)
Well we’ve got trouble,
Right here in River City
With a capital T and that rhymes with G
And that stands for gerbil…
I was getting ready to lie down last night and checked the little girls tank one last time. Crackle came running out of their little wooden house covered with blood! Pop was out and darting around the tank and she seemed to be fine. But then Snap exited the house and she too was bloody. ACK!!! I went and woke Myria up and we sat there at 1:30 in the morning trying to figure out what was going on.
Of course we’re not gerbil mind readers so we never will know for sure. It became clear fairly quickly that Crackle was hurt (though not badly, thank goodness) and that Snap was not hurt at all - she just had Crackle’s blood on her. A few minutes later we observed Snap going after Crackle in a far less than sisterly fashion and that helped us decide what to do. We moved Snap back into the little tank and left Crackle and Pop in the larger one. Things seem to have quieted down. Crackle was up and around today, a little bit ragged looking but eating, drinking, running around and chewing her cardboard tube as she normally would and she doesn’t seem to have any issues with Pop. Snap will stay in the other tank and have it all to herself.
And, the good news continues :)
Useless mitt
In lieu of any real content, thought I’d share some of my needles with you - not that you should care :) We all have our favorites. These are mine.
Warm needles
And now that I have blathered you all insensible - I hope you all have a wonderful weekend :)
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Glad to hear that your gerbil is okay. Boy, it’s really easy to become attached to those little creatures. Sorta caught me by surprise when I find myself becoming emotionally attached to my daughter’s new hamster. I’ve recently discovered bamboo needles after using aluminum all these years. I tried some bamboo about 15 years ago and hadn’t touched them since. I think they’ve come a long way since then. 
Wow - what bizarre behavior out of the blue! I wonder if the separation will have to be permanent?
I’m sorry to hear about your mitt - hopefully this time bad luck won’t come in threes!
Here’s hoping for a peaceful, trouble-free weekend!
gerbil wars!! snap as mattimeo! (i’ve really got to stop reading kiddie literature!) umm, are you sure you have gerbil ‘sisters’? we’ve always been slightly cloudy about rodent genders until babies come along- i’ve certainly seen males act agressively toward one another, but the only time i’ve ever noticed ‘sisters’ scrapping was when they were protecting babies-
once upon a time, i had a huge collection of needles but ‘things happen’ and now i am still rebuilding the stash of those- what i look for now when i start a project is usually something/anything with sharp points- *and* i prefer straights (blasphemy, i know)-
sorry about the mitt, but i’m sure nice ribbed ones will be just right for your dad- cables don’t have the elasticity of ribbing, and they can really throw off the most carefully calculated gauge-
stay happy-
Cheryl - You do get attached - at least I do :) Not too sensible, I suppose, but I don’t know how to be any other way.
I agree - bamboos are a LOT different than they used to be. The only ones I’ve tried since the originals have been Clover DPNs but I like them a lot.
Bron - Unfortunately, the separation will have to be permanent. Gerbils, separated for as little as 24 hours, will treat each other as strangers and therefore, a threat. However, things seem to be working out okay and we already had the other tank so…
Barb - I suppose that could be the case, though I really hope it isn’t :) We don’t need gerbil pups - boy would that drive the cats nuts :) Might be worth it at that!
I like straights too - but I don’t (and won’t) own any longer ones; I’m just too awkward to manage them gracefully. In fact, the shorrter the needle I can get away with, the better I like it :) I do like circulars, though…
And yes, I think nice ribbed mitts will fill the bill pretty well!
siamese fighting gerbils? I wonder what caused them to go at it. Did you already frog the mitt? How about giving it a soak--might expand some.
I use non-metal needles pretty much exclusively due to the warmth factor. A bit of arthritis in the hands means knitting with metal just plain aches, so I’m overjoyed at the wealth and breadth of bamboo, wood and plastic offerings that can be found now.
Toni - Actually I was just about to do that. Your recommendation is good, but I should have given some thought beforehand to what dad would think of the cables :) This man’s concession to color is bright gray! Yeah, a joke - but not much of one :)
Kathy - love them too and as I get older and my fingers get crankier, I’m glad to have them. I do still have a lot of metal needles that I use sometimes. Last night I was comparing a newer set of metal, 12” long, size 8 single-points with an older set. The older set weighs a ton more than the newer ones - solid, maybe?
I only have one pair of the Brittany birch needles, and just recently used them to knit a Heartstrings ‘Crest of the Wave’ scarf - LOVED THEM! Would love to have more needles of that quality, but my lys no longer carries Brittany. Also, I usually use circulars - easier on my ancient wrists. So, if you have any recommendations for circulars of the same level of quality as the Brittany birch, I’d love to know what they are! thanks!
Karen - I know a lot of people like the Addi bamboos but I have found the cord to be fairly stiff on those and so awkward for me to work with. For circular I love my Susanne’s ebonies (the company also makes rosewood needles, but I haven’t tried those). They are fairly expensive, $15 - $18 but they are very nice - easy on the hands and easy to work most fibers with.
But you know, now that I think about it, Clover makes circular bamboo needles and if they’re as good as their DPNs, they would certainly be worth trying. I know that my local A.C. Moore carries them, but I don’t know what the prices are like (except they’re likely to be a lot less expensive than the ebonies), nor have I used them so I can’t say how they feel or what the cable is like.
I expect I’ll try them soon enough :) I’m too curious not to!
Naughty gerbies!
Thanks for your reply about the needles. I’d like to
try the ebony needles, may try to locate them online
since none of my lyss have them. As for Clover Bamboo
Circulars, they are what I DO use for almost all my
knitting projects because I like them so much. There
is no metal cap at the join, and I find the tips
adequate, though not quite so sharp and slick as
Brittany’s (turns out my lys does still carry them,
but no circulars). My one complaint about Clover’s
circulars is that the newer ones seem to have a
stiffer plastic cable than the earlier ones I bought a
few years ago. Still, they are my favorites, and the
price is right.
thanks again! karen
ps - I had a dumb week too
Karen - You shouldn’t have any trouble locating the Susanne ebonies; many places carry them. Having heard your feeoings (and thanks for sharing them!) about the Clover bamboo circulars, I may go ahead and give them a try. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, eh?
Stasia - Well, I guess these things happen :) Everybody seems to have settled down in their new arrangements. Crackle shows a bit of ruffled fur at her left shoulder but is otherwise fine and acting normally. It was astonishing to see how quickly they cleaned themselves up though - I suppose you’d have to be quick about it in the wild since the scent of blood would attract unwelcome visitors!
Hope things have settled down with the gerbils. It is interesting the needles people like to knit with. For double points I always return to my Bernat metals, I bought in the 80’s. I also have a complete set of Bernat straight 10 inches. I love my addi turbo circulars. I do have a few bamboo clover circulars. But, there is something about them that doesn’t work for me. I always end up going back to the metal.
Maureen - Someone else who likes metal double points! I’m aware of the advantages of wodden or bamboo DPNs and do use them sometimes. But I seldom have problems with the metal ones and they’re the ones I go for first - every time :)
Well, except for the larger sizes. The only size 10 DPNs I have are bamboo :)
Oh, trust me, it wasn’t YOU that made me senseless! I do that all by myself.
I love the look of your “useless mitt”. Cables are SO neat.
Snap, Crackle and Pop seem to be having “boundary” problems, I guess. That’s too bad. Maybe she’s maturing and at that bitchy stage...not that I EVER had that stage.
Laurie - Thanks about the mitt - I was pretty tickled with it too as these were 6 stitch cables and I generally stick to 4 stitches. And these were coming out nicely - but hey. Now that I know I can do them so they look good, maybe I’ll use them more often :)
Me, I’m still waiting to get out of the bitchy stage!
