DPN problem

LOL I have read Mark Twain, but never thought to use him in this context. I have never used life lines, as I fine that they are almost more trouble than they are worth. I will think about "fixing" the tips, though. Thanks.

Higs, Kather> As I read that next to last sentence, you just need to learn to curse

I am the KING of lazy.

I think steel needles are the fast, easy, low stress way to knit.

Oh, did I mention CHEAP?

~Gansey needles provide a spring return that is faster than anything my hand can do - that is fast. It is push button knitting. ~Think of a knitting needle as a lever for moving yarn. With circs or SPN you hand/ fingers are the effort and fulcrum. With a knitting sheath, I have ten times as much leverage, that makes it easy. ~Your hand being both effort and fulcrum means that there is a torque on your wrist. with a knitting sheath, there is no torque on the wrist, hence it is a low stress way to knit. Point 1 above says steel is the right material for use with some knitting sheaths.

~It costs me US$0.75 to make a steel needle - and I make good ones.

I know why I like steel at 3mm and thinner: (Steel has a flex that makes them feel more lively than aluminum or (plated) brass. Wood breaks. I can wear through the anodized coating of an aluminum needle in a couple of hundred hours where steel will last a lifetime. Steel is lighter and warmer than brass. I can adjust the surface texture of a steel needle as much as I like with out worrying about damaging a thin coating. I can adjust the tip shape of a steel needle to suit the yarn that I am using. ) I am not so sure why I like my 4 mm steel sock needles as they do not have the flex, and wood is quite strong enough at that size. Today, I think it is simply a matter that those sock needles have a surface texture that I am accustomed to, and like. That surface is smoother than aluminum, but not as smooth as a mirror finish.

Aar> (WD-40 was developed

I buy those needles specifically because they're so slick - y'all are giving me the heebiejeebies thinking about roughing them up! :)

You are more deft than I am : )

It also depends on the fiber that you are working with and how tightly you are knitting. If you are knitting a slippery, synthetic lace yarn, you may want a little more traction. If you are knitting a fisherman's gansey, you might want the surface of your needles to have as low of a friction coefficient as possible.

There are several ways of approaching a low friction surface. One is to polish the surface to a mirror finish. This works for some fibers. Another approach is to coat the surface with a super slick material, such as Teflon. It is worth noting that skacel's new "Golden Needles" have a plastic coating which they claim is less slippery, but just as low friction as the plated metal mirror finish. Another approach is to have a slightly textured surface that holds a "liquid" lubricant. Think of Babbitt bearing material. Remember, you can not feel this texturing with your hands or lips and you can not see it with the naked eye. You need a microscope.

On some of my needles, I leave spiral groves on the tips (on the order of

0.002" deep). These can be easily seen with a loop. These groves catch the yarn and are wonderful for tight cable stitches. It is almost like knitting with "hooked needles." They are not for everyone, or for every use.

I have a set of "pristine" Addi turbos with a mirror finish. That mirror finish creates more friction between the needle and the wool yarns that I often work with, than the textured surface of my steel needles creates when used with the lanolin hand cream (liquid lubricant) that I use while I knit with these yarns. In short, the Addis feel slippery, but do not improve my knitting speed, and they actually increase my knitting effort.

That is my story, and I am sticking to it.

Aaron

fiberlicious spun a FINE 'yarn':

I buy Inox Express rather than Addi Turbo's, but I know what you mean, nodnodnod. My express are slick and I LIKE them that way. However, I also have some rosewood, ebony, birch, maple needles that ARE NOT slick, and I like THEM that way too, for various reasons, which Aaron already expanded upon..... JM2C, Noreen

I wouldn't "texturize" my Addi Turbo circs either. If I want a metal needle with a bit of grab I break out the Inox teflon-coated needles; they're smooth as silk but not slicker than greased snot on waxed paper, as my mother might say. The rosewoods - even well-used and well-lanolined rosewoods - are grabbiest of all with bamboo running a close second.

And I love the two nylon circs Aaron sent me. I use them almost exclusively for lace knitting now. I got after the tips with polishing compound and pointed them up. They're sharp enough for k3tog action with my handspun froghair, but flexible enough that I don't draw blood from my fingerpads. They're also grabby enough to work with pure silk but slick enough to let the cobweb-weight Shetland wool move right along.

Wooly:

I am glad to hear that those old nylon needles are working for you. Just remember that you paid way too much for them : )

I mean, if you can go after the tips of your $45 nylon circs, why can't I go after the tips of my $12 Addis? LOL

Aaron

Har! Where'd you get that $45 number from? All I sent you was a little "wadge" of handspun :D

I don`t believe any woman would pay that amount for any knitting needles,,,,, mirjam

Around here, they do not sell handspun by the wadge; they sell it by the millimeter. If you saw the prices in some of our local yarn stores, we would need a paint scraper to get your jaw off the floor.

I mean, they have bins of "Buffalo Gold" at $100 per tiny little hank. The next time you wonder why your LYS does not have much of a selection of exotic, luxury yarns, you will know it is because those yarns are sitting in bins in Yarn Stores in the Bay Area that pay $6,000 a month in rent and must make a good profit on floor space. This is knitting as conspicuous consumption.

A.

Ah, a good impartial judge. How much is 82 grams of very fine hand spun worth? I seem to value it a bit higher than Wooly did ; D

Yeah well, there's a reason I don't sell my handspun. I value my time too highly for it to be affordable for most people. Ask me nicely, however, and I can probably dig out from my stash enough handspun for you to knit a cap. Don't be greedy though!

At a conservative estimate it took me about 90 hours to spin that gray sweater, another 60 to knit it. At even a measly $10 that's runway prices for what is, essentially, a very mundane piece of clothing...

Do not tempt me!

I am still drooling on those wadges of yarn you sent me. I bought a bunch of lace yarn at the guild store to practice on, dug out some real Victorian lace patterns....

I will do one piece of nice lace for my wife's dining room table.

Then, if I win the Lottery . . . . .

Aar>

Nope I use the loop needles and only right now use DPNs when the loops get to tight when the loop needs can't get through the loops of what I am working on. Pam-Doggirl3

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