Straight Needles
Blog readers have notice that my current project is being knit on straight needles. For a number of reasons, you’d think I wouldn’t use them.
Straight Needles Vs. Circular Cable Needles
In almost every knitting situation I can think of, circular cable needles are better than their straight counterparts. And as a gay man, I feel I should be calling them non-circular needles. But I’m not sure that would be a very clear description.
When I first decided to knit underpants as one of the first items I ever actually knit from a pattern, I used straight aluminum needles. I didn’t know better and/or wherever I found US1 and US2.5 needles, they didn’t have circulars.
When I decided to try and finish a pair of vintage underpants in time for the upcoming retreat, I decided to use these straight, bamboo needles for two reasons. First, for sentimental reasons. Second, to test them out in case I decided to teach someone to knit at the retreat and gift them their first set of knitting needles.
I find most new knitters are more comfortable using standard knitting needles to learn. I think they don’t trust the cable part of the needle to keep their stitches as evenly as a full-length shaft. When new knitters decide to to keep knitting, they quickly learn the convenience of circular cable needles and switch over.
I will say two things about my current project needles:
- They are very smooth and easy to use for this limited size project.
- I am still dropping the non-working needle at the end of a row, forgetting that it’s not attached to a cable.
It’s still a fun experiment.
Current Knitting
I’ve made it past the second button hole on my current project and I’m not sure I’ll finish the other side of this garment in time.
On the left-hand side of the pants, I still have a little shaping to do and then the waist ribbing. And then a mirror image repeat. I also hope I’ll have enough yarn. I’ll weigh the first section and compare it to how much yarn I have left.
My hot take; a lot of the hate straight needles gets has to do with the quality of the needles. I have a set of the karbonz I’m using for one of my current projects and at least three of my UFOs in time out are on straight needles. I think one of them is chiaogoo bamboo.
I think straight needles are also way easier to keep track of which way your knitting is going. Especially if for beginners you put different color dots on each end. The red one is in your right hand. Now it’s in your left hand and so on. You working yarn is on the right hand needle and you knit into the stitch in the left hand. It’s just hard to see all of this on the circulars. And they are great cheap little gifts. I tend to use circulars (non-straight?) a lot because I usually only knit traveling and they poke out to the neighbors less and tend to look more “lethal”. And usually I’m doing shawls which get too big. I love my SQUAre DPNs for socks though. Feel like DPNs make us look ever so clever!
Finished your book this morning. I had no idea the men’s knitting retreats were so numerous. I thought it was just the 2 you talk about—spring and fall—in the blog. Very cool.
I usually choose the type of needle that I need to use based on what seems to be the most manageable option, and sometimes change needles mid-project depending on the shape that my knitting takes as the work progresses. As an example, when starting a triangular shawl from the bottom of the shawl tip, I would use straight needles to begin with the first few rows of fewer stitches, but then switch to a circular needle as the work acquires more stitches, which makes the circular needle an easier way to continue working. This also works with knitting socks and stockings, where I might use double-pointed knitting needles for some areas that require them, so that certain areas are shaped correctly or need to be held separately as the project develops. I love the small, hard-to-find circular needles that make working up a long leg so much easier and faster to finish. Choosing needles that are the best or fastest way to easily accomplish the correct shaping makes a lot of my work a lot easier and better looking.
So many pattern designers and some knitters overlook the ease of using two sets of circular needles for small circumference knitting. My hands are a bit too large for 9″ circulars and I guess I’m too clumsy for DPNs. An early Cat Bordhi book on knitting socks with two circs led the way for me.