The YarnTotingBlog

I have this problem with knitting. It seems that projects always call for needles other than what I have. Not only are there the straight needles but fifteen hundred different sizes and lengths of circular needles. Don’t forget double pointed needles. Well, for the sake of my pocket book I decided some time back that I wasn’t buying straight needles anymore. Instead, I decided to buy circulars and use them for all my flat pieces as well whether I liked it or not. That didn’t solve the problem of all the different lengths when it came to circulars so I actually was simply making do with what I had rather than buying new anything. Then I discovered the Denise Interchangeable Knitting Needles and fell in love, especially with the pink. However, while I was saving for those my MIL passed on to me a 50% off coupon for Michaels but since I couldn’t think of anything I wanted from Michaels that would make savings worth the gas it took to get there and spending the money I was saving for my Denise Interchangeables, it appeared I wasn’t going to get to use it. Saturday rolled around however and I remembered it was the last day for the coupon and why wouldn’t I want to go to Michaels? I already knew Michaels didn’t carry the needles I was saving for but I ran a search on their website anyway and discovered the Boye interchangeable knitting needles. I figured since we were heading out to the park we may as well go to Michaels and take a look.

First thing I noted once there is that they were more expensive than I was expecting but with 50% off I could afford them and they’d be cheaper than the ones I was saving for. Second thing, and the real hangup, they’re aluminum. Denise’s are plastic and I’ve never knit with plastic before but I had grown partial to bamboo for how light it is (which is why I use a size 9 for my kerchiefs: it’s the smallest size I have in bamboo needles) and had been using my aluminum needles for decoration (they looked great standing up in my red vase). I left the store to find DH who had passed up Michaels for the World Market next door and lamented to him, starting with the price since I knew he didn’t care the slightest what they were made out of. He’s pretty good at math though so he’d figured out before I’d finished speaking that 50% off these needles was a lower total than the ones I was saving for and he’d already latched on to the fact that this set of Boyes had more sizes in it. He forced me into it.

Last night I pulled them out to experiment. As it turns out, I really don’t mind aluminum needles when they’re only 4 inches long. Also, I recently had been thinking about how I kind of missed the distinctive click of aluminum needles. They do up tightly and I haven’t had them come loose on me so far. I still have no idea how to knit in the round but my next kerchief is working up well. Actually, the only problem I’ve had so far is when I pick up the one needle in my left hand and begin looking around wondering where the other one is and I really don’t care to admit how often that has happened.

I know there is an overall preference among knitters for the Denise kit so if you’re in the market I guess take their word for it and go with Denise. Personally I recommend spending the extra for the pink kit as not only is it pink but the extra money is donated to breast cancer research. For me though, the price won out. As it turns out however, the money I saved ended up going to help others after all so that made it worth the sacrifice to me.