Word of Warning

I hate to speak ill of a company unless it's deliberately obnoxious, but, for the sake of preserving the sanity of other sock/lace knitters out there, I need to warn you about Crystal Palace Yarns needles. Let me say first that I have no experience with their larger needles. This warning is only about the bamboo US#1/2.25mm circular needles.

These needles have a lip where the needle meets the cord. That joint is a ball-and-socket, which allows the needle to twist without twisting the cord. This is, in theory, a great idea. Unfortunately, at the 2.25mm size, there's enough of a difference between the size of the ball and the size of the socket that moving stitches from the cord to the needle is extremely frustrating.



I apologize for the blurry picture, but even with the blur, the lip is obvious. I want to love these needles, I really do, but trying to get stitches over the lip is annoying and time-consuming. Over the course of working the SuperSockeSock, I've found a way to hold the needle when moving stitches that sort of works, but the last few stitches still get stuck, and it doesn't work at all for lace rows.

As I said, I want to love these needles. I adore wood needles, and would love to have nothing but. These circs are just getting on my nerves so much that I don't want to work with them again. I may end up working the second SuperSockeSock on DPNs for the sake of my blood pressure.

So there it is: beautiful needles, soft and quiet, but that lip drives me bonkers.