Needles. (this is an old picture… the socks are MUCH farther along than that) This is 2 sets of Plymoth 6″ bamboo double points, my new favorite sock needles! They’re nice and pointy and the 6″ length is very easy to use.
I’ve tried many different brands and types of needles, and you might say I’ve come up with a needle philosophy. Each needle has it’s place and every knitter or project has its needles. It sort of bothers me when someone says “Addi Turbos are the best” or “wooden needles are better”. Myself, I tend to like something slick like Addi Turbos for wool or wool blends, but I can’t stand to knit cotton or cotton blends on anything but bamboo. Of course, I also HATE using straight single pointed needles, but I’ll get to that. It’s a factor of many things, how quickly I knit, the stickiness or gripping ability of the needle, the type of project, and the schproinginess (I just made that up, you like?) of the yarn. So here are my thoughts, all laid out and concise. Let’s start with needle types.
Straight Single Pointed Needles: I can’t stand using them, because they hurt my wrists with all the weight at the end when you’re knitting something, but they’re good for beginners because it’s easy to see when you’ve completed a row. There are also some shorter sizes that I dislike less for things like scarves, and some people use straights exclusively for lace. But sadly, not for me because of the wrists problems.
Circular Needles: There is no denying the versatility of circular knitting needles. They can knit flat, they can knit round, they can even be pulled out of your work and used as a garrott to strangle terrorists on planes. The beauty of circular needles is that you can fit more stitches on the needle per inch than you could with the same sized straight needle. The way this works is that the cable is thinner, allowing the stitches more room to bunch up, and the work to fold up on itself, putting more stitches in the same space. This is why I like them for triangular lace shawls. When you have 500 odd stitches on the needles it makes a difference.
Double Pointed Needles: I prefer double pointed needles for socks and mittens. They can also be handy for sleeves that are knit in the round. I admit that I haven’t tried the magic loop method, or the socks on two circulars method, but what I love about double points is that I can just finish a needle’s worth of stitches and set it down. It’s very easy to pick up where you left off. I like bamboo double points most of the time (again with the wrists) because they give a little when I hold them. I knit tightly when I’m knitting socks so that I get a firm fabric that will wear longer, and that little extra give means that my hands don’t get tired as quickly and I can knit longer without pain. I have a theory about knitting colorwork mittens on metal needles, but I have to test it before I talk about it.
Now, to the materials that a needle is made of:
Wood: The most common type of wooden needles is bamboo. They are inexpensive, flexible and strong. They come in straight, circular and double pointed. I like to knit cotton with my bamboo circs. Cotton, having little to no give, can sometimes get very tight around my metal needles, so I knit it on bamboo so I can knit more loosely without worrying about the stitches falling off (bamboo is grippy to yarn). I also advocate teaching knitters with bamboo needles. For a tight knitter, they are flexible enough to keep her from doing permanant damage to her wrists what with the death grip she’s got on them. And if she’s a loose knitter *snicker*, her stitches won’t slide off (or the needle slide out the back) quite so easily as they will with a heavier metal needle. I hear Holz & Stein Circs are nice, but I haven’t tried them.
Metal: Metal comes in many types… there’s the solid aluminum ones like Susan Bates that come in nifty colors, or there are the hollow aluminum nickle-plated ones like Addi Turbos, or KnitPicks’ new line. The key if you want to use metal needles is to think about weight. The heavier the needles are, the slower you will knit and the more it will fatigue your hands, arms and shoulders. I like metal for wool. Wool stretches and retracts as you knit, so for me, the combination allows me to knit very quickly. Especially with lace.
Plastic: On the rare occasion (early in my days of knitting) I have used plastic needles. I hate them. I hate them with a passion greater than the heat of a thousand suns. They have the flexibility of wood, but not the memory, they have some of the slickness of metal, but not enough. The only thing going for them is that they’re cheap and light.
Balene, Casein, etc… I have never tried any of these other types. When I am independently wealthy I have plans to stalk estate sales to find a set of ivory double points, but I don’t really have much desire to try the imitations.
I hope that gives you a bit of an idea of what needles are available and what you can think about when choosing needles. I’d suggest that you try a bunch of stuff and find what you like. And then be open to change again. I’ve ordered some of the KnitPicks needles to see if I like them. I knit once with a Boye Circular set that was interchangable, and I thought the needles were wtoo heavy. And I watched in horror once as someone’s Denise came undone and spilled thousands of yards of laceweight knitting onto her lap like so much cappellini, it was scary and I’ll never use Denise as a result. Anyway… we’ll see how the KnitPicks goes….
M
Carole has finished her Adamas Shawl in a lovely purple! I love it babe!
Froggy Dear finished her Icarus shawl, and turned potential disaster into a BEAUTIFUL finish! Take a look at that edging!
Janelle also finished Icarus! She was having wrist pain and had to shorten it, but it still looks lovely! Good job on the fix!
Janet finished Icarus as well, in Kool Aid dyed yarn! It’s beautiful Janet!
Grace finished Seraphim in KnitPicks Gloss as well! It turned out lovely!
