Hey Guys~
I was wondering if anyone owns or knows about the Boye NeedleMaster Interchangeable Needle Kit. I just bought one on eBay and an getting a bit nervous becuase I need cable sizes 12" 14" and 16" and it touts 20" 24" 29" and 36" but also states that you can create unlimited custome sizes. It looks like they made a couple different models of this so I don’t know what exactly I’m getting…hmm. Thanks for your input!
here’s the kit: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=190172693284&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=009
You can take a look here:
http://www.wrights.com/wrights/products/catalog/boyeline/knitmates_accs.htm
I think the package comes with cables to create 20", 24", 29", 36" circulars, but they do have something called Knitmates cables that you can purchase separately.
The needle tips are about 4" each, so that would add 8" to each cord. Hobby lobby sells the pieces separately and their cord lengths are 12", 16 and 21" length. The full set also has a 14" cord, and includes a joining piece to combine cords to make the longer needles.
Sue is correct about the length of the 3 cords. There are 2 joiners, so if you needed a really long cord, you can do it.
I have a needle master kit and I really like it. The joins on the cord are slightly bulky, especially if your tension is tight. Overall, I would reccomend it!!
Okay, so it sounds like 20" circular is the smallest size I will be knitting on, with a 12" cord and 8" needles, is that correct?
That is correct, which is why the auction lists them as 20in, 24in, 29in, 36in lengths - the measurements include the cords and the needles.
If you don’t have the cords you want you can buy more from the factory fairly inexpensively.
But they only have the same sizes available, nothing shorter than the 12" cord.
That seems strange, though because isn’t it best to knit a hat on 16" circular for a 20" head?..And especially for a baby you need something way smaller than even that…why don’t they include smaller sizes in this kit? Or does this system really cover a wide range of projects, am I just spazzing out over nothing? 
I don’t know about Boye, but Knitpicks options explains that the interchangeable tips don’t work well at sizes smaller than than the 24 inch because the tips have to be so much smaller to make the circle (i.e., with 4 inch tips, that’s 8 inches of needle, so a 12 inch circular would then only have a 4 inch cord, and couldn’t bend into a circle. Knitpicks sells fixed circulars in smaller sizes than their interchangeables. I haven’t checked, but perhaps Boye does the same thing.
I got a set of the Boye on sale a month or so ago, for my dd for Christmas. I hope they’re decent needles. I love my knitpicks, but I’m not spending that much on a 10yo.!
Yes, you need a 16 inch for a hat unless you do Magic Loop or the the two circ method. I don’t have or like Boye so I don’t know their size range. You might have to get a few separate 16 in circs for hats.
You can use longer circs for hats by using 2 of them or Magic Loop. I first bought a 12" cord, but because of the tip length it was too hard to knit with even back and forth. Maybe it would have been easier in a smaller needle size, but because of the tips at the ends of the cords for screwing in the tips are inflexible, the 12" isn’t really practical for use.
Thanks Lisa, that helps! Well, then [I]can[/I] I knit a hat for a 20" head on 20" needles without stretching it?
No, it doesn’t work that way. The shortest cord length in the Denise set is 17 in and I found it too long for some hats.
You can use two circs with the same size needles and do the two circ method. Or put on a longer cord and do magic loop. OR buy some 16 in needles just for hats. That’s what I did with my Options. I bought several 16 in circs in sizes I use most for hats.
The Denise set isn’t the Boye set, whose shortest cord is 12". Yes, you can knit a 20" hat on at 20" needle, when you knit the tips are crossed over so you’re effectively only using 18" or so. The CO may be a little tight because it won’t quite measure 20" until the sts are knit so you’d have to stretch the sts or knit a row or two flat, then join. After the first row you shouldn’t have any problem.
I’m not sure–I’ve started collecting 16" needles in hat sizes so I don’t have to worry about it. And I have a hat OTN now, but needed to do another quickly before that one was done, so I’m using 2 circs for that one.
You won’t really be able to do Magic Loop w/Boye, the cables are not nearly flexible enough. I did it for this projectand it was miserable. And that was with regular Boyes with 30" cables. If I had used my Boye interchangeables, I wouldn’t have had a cable long enough for ML, and if I tried to use the joins to make it long enough, the joint would have been in the way - not to mention that with all that stress the joint and the tips would have been coming loose every round.
I like my Boye interchangeables just fine, but I do feel the need for a second set of IC’s, I’m thinking of going w/Options when I have budget (maybe next year when DH finishes law school…)
I can definitely understand why people don’t like Boyes. With the exception of my set, I inherited all my other Boyes from my mom, so they are sentimental. Otherwise I wouldn’t put up with the stiffness of the cables or the dullness of the tips (though the IC set is much sharper than the individual needles that I have, and I don’t know if new Boye circs are sharper than the ones my mom gave me).
I use regular Boye’s in Magic loop. The 29" ones on sleeves, and I did a hat on one too.
Okay, so what is the Boye Needlemaster system good for? What do you knit on these monsters? I got it just for hats, but it looks like that’s not gonna happen!
(I did buy a 16" circular for this hat I’m knitting on US3’s) Thanks for the info!
BIP: that baby hat you did is too cute!! Great job!
I love mine! You can knit anything that’s flat on them. I prefer them to straights cuz they make the work lighter. They are good for things like bags, blankets, afghans.
I got mine off ebay too… love them!