Having good tools is really important and can greatly impact on the knitting.
When I very first started knitting, I, like many others, started with straight needles. They used to belong to my grandmother and I keep them preciously in a jar on my bedside table at my parents. I don't really have any use for them anymore, but they have a sentimental value. And I'm sure they will someday find their purpose again if I ever want to knit a very large project like a blanket for example.
But let's go back to the circular needles. I was introduced to circular needles by the French ladies that I was meeting every other week when I was still living in Paris. And I must say that circular needles revolutionized my knitting experience! I first acquired a kit of knit pro circular Nova. These are the needles that I have used over and over for a couple of years now. I was really pleased with them until I started to have unfortunate misandventures with the cables that started to break from the join. It's something that is very annoying, especially when working on a lacy project with a lot of stitches as you can imagine.
I haven't tried any other needles until very recently actually. Despite the fact that the cable broke a couple of times, I was very pleased with my first set of needles. Last Christmas I was gifted another set from knit pro: dreamz. I was supposed to keep these in France so then I wouldn't have had to carry needles in the plane with me anymore. But I brought them back to Latvia with me. I use them from time to time, mostly when I don't have any other needle size available. I really like knitting with them, but I have the feeling that wooden needles are really slowing me down. The stitches don't fly as easily on the needles as they do with the metal ones.
Since then my fingers have been itching to try new needles. I had heard a lot of good things about ChiaoGoo needles since the very first meeting with the ladies in France, but wasn't experienced enough to know the difference between one set of metal needles to another. The difference can actually be quite significant and as I mentionned it at the beginning, material can really impact on the knitting.
The set that I own comes in a little zipped pouch that can contain needles from US2 (2,75mm) to US15 (10mm) plus 16 other needles! The pouch is really small and can easily fit in a handback. There's another little zip on the outside of the pouch to keep the stitch markers, the cables, the cable blockers and the gauge measurement that came in the kit. The set comes with seven needles sizing from US2 to US8 . The tips of the needles are not extremely sharp, but quite long compare to the knit pro ones and they are absolutely wonderful for working with lace. The biggest difference that I have noticed from the knit pro are the cables. They are absolutely brilliant. They are very sturdy and don't roll on themselves as you knit (no memory!), which is something that I found really annoying when working back and forth on a project. They also seem to be very well fixed to the part where the needle is attached.
I have noticed quite a difference in the way I knit with these needles. The cable is really doing its job, and I've been able to work way faster on my projects since I've been using them. All in all I'm very pleased with the set, and I will definitely add the remaining sizes needles to have a full kit.
Which circular needles do you enjoy using?
