A new obsession

As a designer I spend hours every day knitting and good tools are very important. My most important tool, in addition to good yarn, is good needles. Every knitter has their preferences when it comes to needles but I like smooth needles with long, tapered, sharp point. For the last 5-ish years I've been faithfully knitting with my KnitPro interchangeables. I love the interchangeable set, which for those who are wondering what I'm talking about, is a set of circular cables and needle tips  that you can mix and match. If you buy the interchangeable set you get a set of cables and tips and i've added to my set over the years and now have a very comprehensive set of various length cables and tips in every size. In fact I have several sets in most sizes. Another bonus with the Knit Pro needles is that they're made of pretty wood which is still very smooth, much smoother than most bamboo needles and they have fairly sharp points.

Recently though I tried a needle which would break my Knit Pro addiction:

It's the ChiaoGoo Red Lace circular needles. These are stainless stell needles with cables that don't kink. I was first introduced to these needles via some tweets just before Knit Nation. I bought a couple of sets to try out at the Loop booth at KN and immediately liked them. I've since added a few more sets from two of the UK stockists, Loop and Purlescense.

So why do I love these needles? Well, apart from the no-kink cables which you can wind up like I do in the photo above and then unwind to knit with and the cables are perfectly straight, they're made of smooth stainless steel with very smooth joints and long, sharp points, which is perfect for all kinds of knitting but especially lace and cable knitting.

They don't look as fancy as my Knit Pro needles which will still be my 'go-to' needles for my workshops and I still love their interchangeables set but my favourite needles for my own knitting is the ChiaoGoo Red Lace. The only thing I would improve is I wish they came in an interchangeable set. The price isn't bad either.

The only thing that could make them better? Purple cables instead of red!