Needle Mayhem

This week, I swatched for two different shawls with the same yarn and with about eleventy-billion needles.

I swatched for shawl 1, Fiori di Sole by Rosemary Hill, with US 4 Knit Picks Harmony wood interchangeables.  I decided the result was pretty, slightly too open (I would have tried a 3, but I didn’t have one in Harmony wood), but also, the project might not quite be what I had in mind for an entry into the State Fair.  While pretty, it didn’t have any super challenging anything.  When entering a project into the State Fair, which is a contest, at the heart of it, and a celebration of hand crafts, it seems like I should choose something challenging.

Then I started swatching for Crocus Shawl by Hiroko Folkmann Drost.  I started out with some Hiya Hiya Stainless steel needles, which I had purchased with this project in mind and I had ordered multiple sizes (so I have three 40” long Hiya Hiya needles in US 3 and smaller sizes).  Those were not pointy enough, so I tried my Knit Picks nickel plated fixed circulars in 40” lengths and those were somewhat too slick.  

I decided I would take a field trip after work on Tuesday and go to the Crafy Planet, which carries the fixed Knit Picks Harmony wood needles and bought a 3mm and 2.75mm in 47” lengths.  I brought those home and that evening took another shot at my swatch.  These were also not quite pointy enough, though they were grippy* enough.  I could complete the project with them, but it would be a tad slow.  I finished about half the swatch with the 3mm, it looked nice, I was mildly annoyed (better than the Hiya Hiyas, which made me massively annoyed).  

On Wednesday at lunch, I took a field trip to StevenBe (I had to go there to pick up some yarn I’d ordered to make Katarina anyway).  I had 8 balls of it at home, but I got 5 more.  Anyway, there I purchased a 40” US 3, 3.25mm Signature circular needle (and a set of Kollage 2.25mm square 5” DPNs that I really didn’t need, but I’ll talk about more at the end of this).  I brought that home after work on Wednesday and went to work on my swatch.  This needle was clearly the best choice out of those available for my yarn and the project.  They are a tad grippy (the right amount so the stitches don’t all fall off) and very pointy. The cable is also the most flexible cable ever and sort of invisibly swivels inside the tip somehow, like magic.  I’m getting similar gauge on them as I was getting on the 3.0mm Harmony.  I find that typical, getting a slightly smaller gauge with a metal needle versus a wood one.  The Crocus Shawl has 9 stitch nupps and a bunch of k5tog and k3tog and even cables.  I really liked this swatch, both knitting it and how it looked.  I also really liked the Signature needles, but probably not enough to run out and buy them all.  They’re perfect for this application, but I’ve been happy with other needles for everything else, so far.

I now have a boatload of needles in US 2, 2.5 and 3 that will be brilliant for colorwork projects.  To get back to the brief diversion into the Kollage square double points, I am hard on double points.  I have a sets of Addi DPNs in about 6 or 8 sizes.  I really dislike them.  I loved them when I was a new knitter, but I now prefer much pointier needles.  I’ve tried several other brands of DPNs.  I tried Lantern Moon SOX stix in Rosewood.  I love them, but after completing my first project with them, they’re all bent.  I’m sure I’ll use them again, but I find this a bit frustrating.  I knit a tiny bit with Brittany needles because I was helping someone with a sock.  She had those needles in her project and was trying to strangle the needles with her stitches and was quite successful, managing to break 4 of them in about a 36 hour period just by getting them stuck in her work.  I grabbed a set of 6” Kollage DPNs in 2.5mm from Needlework Unlimited a couple of weeks ago.  I recently used them to make the leg of a toe up sock (to free up my 2.25mm circulars).  It went super fast, I didn’t bend them, and I liked the feel, the point, and the weight of them a lot.

Here's a picture of the Kollage needles in the 2.5mm size:

In summary:

Circulars

Hiya Hiya stainless steel – Reasonably flexible cable, low price ($8), somewhere between pointy and dull, smooth cable join, reasonably slick but not super slick

Knit Picks nickel plated – Quite pointy, low price ($6), flexible cable, reasonably smooth cable join, very slick

Knit Picks Harmony wood – Quite pointy, low price ($7.50), flexible cable, smooth cable join, slightly grippy, but not grippy enough to make me want to stab myself in the eye

Addi Turbo nickel plated – Dull point, mid price ($15), flexible cable, smooth cable join, very slick

Addi Turbo Lace – Quite pointy, mid price ($16), flexible cable, smooth cable join, so grippy they make me want to stab myself in the eye

Signature Needle Arts circular – Extremely pointy, high price ($45), ridiculously and awesomely flexible cable, smoothest cable join, cable rotates through some invisible mechanism in the tip, slightly grippy with slick tip at the very end

DPNs

Addi Turbo – Fairly dull point, mid price ($11), heavy, virtually unbreakable

Brittany birch – Reasonably pointy, low price ($6), light, break easily

Lantern Moon SOX sticks – Pointy, high price ($20-24), light, bend during use

Kollage square DPNs – Reasonably pointy, mid price ($12), reasonably light, did not bend or break during use

* Grippy is a technical term I created to describe the opposite of slickness