Hello to everyone who may actually read this blog! (which I'm finding more and more to be people I don't know that actually leave comments lol.)
It's been a while, a lot has been happening. I started my prep course for college about a month ago, give or take, and studying/memorizing has taken over my existence, among other things.
So my first post back is a product review. Yaaay. Please keep in mind, I'm not being endorsed by the company and all that jazz (although if they wanted to give me free products to review it could be negotiable LOL - not overly likely to happen but you never know!)
Recently I discovered the online shop, KnitPicks (www.knitpicks.com) and I don't really remember how or when, but I think I was looking at shawl patterns and falling in love with those, and I went looking for lace weight yarn that preferably wasn't sheeps' wool, as a lot of my family members (as well as myself) are sensitive/allergic to it. And I found they have lovely alpaca wool! But that is NOT what I am reviewing today! As I haven't had a chance to knit it yet :( (SOON! SOON I SHALL KNIT IT!!! And there will be photos!) It feels great as a skein though!
So today's review is about the Options Interchangeable Zephyr Acrylic Circular Knitting Needle Set by KnitPicks.
How this all started was that the shawl pattern I chose (Shipwreck circular shawl from Knitty.com) is knitted from the center out, and therefore is started on DPNs and then moved into circulars of increasing length and sizee as the shawl grows. I found myself needing 1 set of double pointeds, and then 7 sets of circulars of varying lengths and sizes. I found a very good deal on bamboo FIXED circulars - 15 pairs for $25 - but the downfall there was that they were all the same length (and I was looking for 40-47" longs!) Chances of me using the majority of those needles again was very very slim, due to the lack of versitility (and outside shawls or afgans, what am I going to knit with 40-47" long circulars? That's a bit big for a hat...) And also, who wants to be knitting 600+ stitches off one set of needles onto another, when with the other set is merely a change of tips?
Having already ordered my yarn from KnitPicks, and in casual browsing, seeing the interchangable needles, I started looking for those. My family is very frugal (often bordering on the side of cheap whenever possible), I searched for something in the $20 or less range. I found a couple hits on eBay, but I don't like in the US, and all the listings that were cheaper, didn't ship there. Then came the time to convince myself (and the money source, since I'm sharing the set with my mom), that the KnitPicks ones were better because they really did indeed offer more options. I did the math, and all that, and it was settled. We were going with the interchangable Zephyrs.
Their listed retail price on KnitPicks is $67.38 for the set. They seem to be on the website all/most of the time (at least for the past few months) for $44.99. This price is at least 50% less than the next lowest priced set offered by another company (not one of the other sets offered by KnitPicks, which are $60-75, but still much more affordable.) The set includes 9 sets of needles (Size 4 US/3.5mm to size 11 US/8mm), 4 cables (2 each of 2 different sizes [24" and 32"]), 8 screw on end caps (these are to be screwed onto the cable ends to keep your current project from sliding off if you need the needle tips for another project), a vinyl zippered case to hold the needles (it fits everything), a clear plastic case to hold the cables, and 2 cable keys to help lock the cables to the needle tips.
Very easy to use. Just screw the tips to the cables using the cable keys. And DO use the cable keys - I originally hadn't, and after a while within the first week of knitting the project I was testing them on (a wrap) the needle tip started coming off the cable. I tightened it with the cable keys and it's been on there for months with no sign of loosening unless I want it to. The needles and cables also have a very smooth join, I have yet to have yarn snag, and I'm using yarn that likes to split.
The tips have some amount of give to them, making them easy on the hands compared to a lot of metal needles I've used. The tips are also sharp - it hurt a bit at first to poke myself with them until I got used to it. They're not super super sharp as in "they're going to hurt me" sharp, but it's sharper/pointier than most plastic and metal needles I've worked with.
The other fun part about this set is that you can expand what you own for it. They sell needle tips individually ranging from $4-$7 a set, you can buy a cable binder case that's bigger than the cable case they give you/more organized than the one with the set. You can buy more cables in other lengths. You can also get cable connectors to join multiple cables together for a longer cable - I bought these. It's about $2 for 3 connectors, and they come with instructions and a cable key. I bought a set of these, they seem to work well - they join tightly and smoothly (there's a little bump, but the yarn travels well over it.)
Honestly, I think the only "complaint" I have about them is that the needles all look the same (they're all clear acrylic) and they're not engraved or stamped or marked ON THE NEEDLE as to what size they are. They come on a piece of cardboard that has their info on it, but that's no good if you take them off that or they fall. Personally, I don't really own a needle gauge thingie. I do, however, own an engraver, so I can hopefully fix that without messing up how smoothly the yarn travels.
Oh, and a second product review, just a little one! KnitPicks also sells knitting needle coil wraps. They're awesome! They hold pairs of knitting needles together when not in use. So handy, even with a knitting needle wrap case thing! They sell lots of neat little things, and lots of pretty yarns! I do recommend you check their site out! :)
Happy knitting!
(And again, I'm NOT getting anything from the company for this review)
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