Ok. I can't say it drives me crazy, because driving me crazy would be the ultimate redundancy, but I just don't care for it aesthetically. I know. I know. Half of you are already thinking, "so what does aesthetics have to do with it? It easier to knit socks on two circulars."

Well, that's where I'm torn. Yes, I can honestly say that I probably do knit socks faster on two circulars than I have on my trusty double-points. Thing is, I like my double-points. I always have. I bought double-points before I even knew how to knit, because I'd seen photographs of folks knitting on them, and it just looked so darned interesting that I wanted to learn how to do that. Good Lord. This is coming from the guy who enjoys algebra—even calculus—because I love the way the problems are worked.

So I hit on a recurring theme. I enjoy the process of knitting. And in the case of circulars and double-points, I enjoy knitting with double-points. There's something very comforting and familiar about it; as I said, I even felt so before I learned to actually use them. And I have absolutely no trouble with them, my yarn doesn't get tangled, and when I pick them up, it's never, ever a struggle to get everything—yarn, the unused needles, and the unused portion of the circular cable—out of the way so that I can get down to the part I enjoy: the knitting. And I feel that way every single time I have to turn.

But they're faster. <sigh> Ok. I have to give you that. Or do I? Fortunately for me, this is the first time I've gotten past the toe on a pair of toe-up socks, so I can blame it on the pattern. The pattern is faster. Woohoo!! Dilemma solved. Thanks, Wendy!

And speaking of Wendy, ladies and gentlemen, if you haven't tried Wendy Johnson's toe-up toes, try it out. I used her article in Knitty (with her permission—thanks again, Wendy) to walk our local sock group, Sock-It-To-Me, through the making of toe-up socks. Awesome. It really was just awesome. I was concerned that I had dragged the group through Hades for my own gratification for a while, but the next day, we did get quite a bit of positive feedback. It stretched minds and ideas of how socks are constructed, but everyone—well, a majority, anyway—really seemed to get a lot out of it. That, or we've just got a really nice group of knitters that don't want to hurt my feelings. <evin grin> Either way, I'll take what I can get.