Double-Pointed Odyssey

I am an unfaithful needle buyer. Some people swear by Addis, some by Inox. Some will only knit with natural wooden needles, some knit with glass. I have to admit that I've had a hard time finding my true calling, needle-wise. I love Addi circulars for the big stuff, mainly because of the supple cord, but I will admit I find the nickel plating...disconcerting. I love the sharp tips of Inox needles, but the cord is too stiff in the cheap ones, and the good ones are too hard to find. All of this dithering has resulted in a wildly varied needle stash crammed with Takumi and Inox and Addi and Susan Bates and Suzanne's rosewood and who knows what else.

All of this came to a head last month when I started to get serious about sock knitting. Oh, sure, I've dabbled in socks before, but last month I tripled my sock yarn stash by buying two skeins of Regia and a skein of Trekking XXL. So I decided to give several types of DPNs a go to see how I liked them. The results were conclusive. Please keep in mind that I am a fairly tight knitter, so you may not get the same results with these needles.

Bryspun



We begin with Bruspun plastic DPNs. These are situated four rows from the top of a pair of KnitPicks "Simple Stripes" socks in Crayon. They have been sitting there for months. This is because I HATE them. The plastic is flexible, which is kind of nice, but it has so much grab that I can barely knit.

Pony Pearls



Ditto the Pony Pearls. They're gorgeous and warm and feel nice in my hands, but the plastic suffers separation anxiety every time I try to pull a stitch over the tip.

Brittany



Now, these are lovely. I adore them. They're soft, smooth, they feel good, they even smell good. I just wish I could knit with them. They're not as sticky as the plastic ones, but they're still just too slow. It takes me almost twice as long to knit a sock with these puppies as with any metal needle.

Inox



Now these are getting better. These are Inox grey enamel-coated aluminum DPNs, size 0, that I got last Saturday at the Weaving Works. I've started a sock out of Trekking XXL on them, and I do like them. They are a bit draggy, but not too bad.



Bates



Now, I'm ashamed to say, these are the winners of my very unscientific survey. The least expensive and least attractive of them all, good old wicked-sharp Bates DPNs just really do it for me. They're sharp, they're smooth, and they're super-fast. They're a bit longer than I would like, but other than that, I have no complaints. They are the clear winner as far as speed is concerned, and they produce a consistently even fabric. Here are the Rajastan socks, 3/4 of the way finished:





So the moral of the story is this: sometimes, cheaper is better. Of course, they come in packs of 4 instead of 5, so I have to buy two packs of every size, so it doesn't really turn out to be cheaper, but...oh, what does it matter. They're still better.

Ew.

Why?

Socks Came!!!!!

Oh, they're so beautiful!!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you Stephanie! They fit perfectly, and the yarn is sooooo soft and beautiful, and the knitting is superb. Take a look, world:



And look at this lovely gusset:



Stephanie even sent me the leftover yarn for future repairs. I do not deserve such a wonderful sockpal. And they fit! Somebody who actually, you know, GOT GAGUE before knitting a Pomatomous. Who knew?

Thank you, Stephanie, they are wonderful.
PS. I love your blog.