If a pattern calls for circular needles but says the 'cardigan is worked back and forth on a circular needle in one piece from the neck down", could this also be done working with straight needles?
(Seems like everything I want to try calls for new needle purchases and I’m trying to be more frugal…a related question: Has anyone used that set of circular needles sold at Michael’s for abour $70…where the needles are interchangeable…would that be a more economical purchase using one of their 40% off coupons instead of investing in all those different sets of circular needles separately?)
If the cardigan is worked with the fronts and back all worked at the same time, putting all those stitches on a straight needle might be a squeeze, but if you can get all the stitches on your straight and you feel comfortable still, it will work.
Also, whether the interchangeables are more cost effective depends on what kind of knitting you do. If you use a lot of smaller needle sizes, probably not. If you use needles within your set’s range, probably. If you hardly ever use more than two or three sizes, then, probably not.
I looked at Michaels.com and didn’t see any interchangeable circular needle sets. :??
All in all, the purchase of any interchangeable circular needle set is more cost effective than the piece by piece purchase of what they call ‘fixed circular needles’.
The most expensive set is the new ADDI CLICK interchangeable set of circs. They are missing some US sizes. They are measured in mm.
The most frugal set is the KNITPICKS “OPTIONS”.
The full set is only $60 with a case. I have them and love them. Knitpicks also have a wooden set, which many knitters prefer, called the HARMONY interchangeables. They are $75.
I coulda save a fortune if I had known about Knitpicks interchangeables in time.
If you get to the point of a purchase, you can click through to Knitpicks here at Knitting Help. It will help support our website because Knitpicks is one of our revered advertisers! (see top of this page to click through to Knitpicks!)
I am not crowing about them because of that though. Everything they sell is EXCELLENT quality and COST EFFECTIVE! And customer service that is wonderful!
My girlfriend has that set. She likes it very much!
It took her a while to get used to them. They tended to
unscrew while she was knitting. She got them for $15 at a swapmeet.
I tend to knit everything on circular needles (they’re so much smaller and more comfortable in my hands). Plus, like other posters have said, it can be awfully hard to get all that knitting to stay on one straight needle at a time.
I was given the delightful AddiClick system for Christmas and can’t tell you how delicious they are! They never come unscrewed or wiggle, they’re perfectly seamless and I think the nickel-plating might just make me go faster. I am in love with them, but since I do knit mostly vintage patterns I have had to purchase a couple pairs of itty bitty needles.
I’d love to get the AddiClick myself but at that price, I just can’t. You’re almost always better off with a set of circulars vs. buying one here and one there, which is how I’ve been buying them. My favorite is Addi Turbo but I can deal with the Inox which are quite similar and less expensive. But did I say Addi Turbo is my favorite? lol They’re so yummy to knit with. There’s nothing like them.
Just wanted to add that i always knit everything on circulars. I bought a set of about 15 different size bamboo circulars from ebay for about £20 they are great.
And i find it much better to put the knitting in the middle of the wire when i’m not knitting and I never come back to my work to find some of the stitches have fallen off!! arrgghhh and its easier when out and about and you never have to worry about losing a needle… i do that quite often too…
Thanks for all your help. I’ve been looking at sweater patterns and each one calls for two sets of circulars plus a set of DPNS, and each in different sizes. Now I’ll feel more comfortable buying a set and trying the different patterns!
Yeah, I was sort of in the same situation. Every project, I was buying needles, and a few sizes so that I could check the gauge. While I didn’t mind building a collection that I thought I might eventually use, there are a few differences in DPNs vs straights vs circulars (and their various lengths), so I may have ended up with a lot of needles I’d never use again. So I just bought a set of interchangeable circular needles to hopefully avoid that. I haven’t used them yet, but I bought the Denise ones, mostly because they seemed reasonable, with reasonable prices and shipping terms. And, they don’t unscrew, they twist-lock. For my last project, I used long straight needles, and I found it awkward having the ends sticking off everywhere. Anything that can be done flat can be done on circular needles. However, and this points to your first question, my last project called for a circular and I used straight, only to find out a little later, why: It was a 2-colour project, and it had only one row of a new colour before going back to the first colour, meaning after that row, your tail yarn of your original colour was left at the other end. On a circular, you just slide the work to the other tip, but with the straights, I had to slip all the stitches point to point to the other needle.
After getting the interchangeables and looking at them, I can’t wait to use them. You can even make 2 straight needles with them if you want to, and you can make circulars of all different lengths, even by joining cords together. Seems to be the only downside is you can’t do small diameter circular knitting like on DPNs, you would have to use another method of circular knitting, like regular circular needle knitting, or magic loop, or some of the others shown in the videos here.
I got a set of Boye’s on ebay for about $25. It was several years ago, but I’d look there first if that’s the set you are thinking of getting. I now have a set of Harmony and one of he metal Options (they work together) and I do prefer those, but still use my Boye’s.
