I’ve been working slowly on my XOXOKAL Fern Shawlette, and I finally realized that I don’t like this yarn/needle combo. The yarn is Louet Gems Fingering, and the needles are Signature circulars. The needles are just a little too slick for this particular yarn. I’m switching back to my Lantern Moon ebony circulars, which is most likely what I used when swatching with this yarn before submitting it to Knit Picks for their Under 100 collection.
(Slightly grainy pic under incandescent light, sorry.)
Ahhhh. Better. The ebony needles are a little grabbier than the metal, so I no longer feel like my stitches are slip sliding away. I normally love my Signature needles for lace shawls, but not with this yarn! One size does not fit all. I love my ebony needles, too, but not on a project with multiple YO’s that have to scoot from cable to needle. The Signatures were a better choice for those (Aloha Shawlette, Sophie’s Rose). And for the Criss Cross Hats, I’ve been using Hiya Hiya stainless steel circulars, either regular point or the sharps. I like them both, but probably like the sharps a little more. It’s a good thing to have a lot of needles to choose from! I bought several more needles because I’ve been leaving them in my projects as samples for some of my classes.
Do you have a favorite needle?
PDXKnitterati 
Same here: different needles for different projects. Right now, I would love to knit no matter what with KnitPro Symphonie in US8 – no matching project though 🙂 So it’s Karbonz instead. I have never even touched signature needles and in a way it’s a relief to learn that they aren’t always the perfect choice …
I’ve used Addi’s since I started knitting and (ahem!) quite a few of them in each size. Which means I have lots of WIP’s with idle needles in them… Now you’ve got me to thinking I might “need” to get some Lantern ebony needles also, for certain yarns!!!
It’s always good to have good tools to choose from. I like the Addis, too. Someday maybe I need some of the Ernst glass circulars! I saw them again at Madrona; they knit so smootly. Very nice!
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I LOVE the new Addi Turbo Rockets.
So good we have all these choices, right? We just need to try them ALL.
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I’m using Hiya Hiya needles for my fern shawlette. I also like Lantern Moon needles, but they’re a bit spendy! I haven’t tried the Signatures yet. And personally I find Addi’s over-rated (using the regular ones for my Rosecity yarn crawl shawl, and they’re not pointy enough but the lace ones smell funny to me 😦
I can’t use the Addi lace ones, either. The brass doesn’t agree with my skin chemistry, and they smell funny to me, too. I had to give mine away!
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I love my Lantern Ebony but only have one pair of Lantern Sock Stix and a size 8 circ. You are right, it is nice to have a choice. I have some discount DPNs a friend gave me–a whole set–which I avoid because the imprinting of the name caused the wood to have teeny rough spots. They are GREAT as place holders when I yank out needles from one WIP to use in another!
I have a lot of LM circulars; for a while they were all I would knit with. They just don’t agree with my multiple YO’s in my criss cross patterns! Other than that, they’re my favorite.
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Most of my needles are Knit Picks nickel-plated ones, but I haven’t really tried enough other needles to be able to declare a legit fave. Based on my experiences with the few other kinds I have kicking around, I can say that I have a definite preference for pointy tips (hate hate HATE blunt ones), and that generally speaking, I’m all about the slick needles. I have yet to encounter anything that made me wish for grabbier needles, and the one time I did find myself using a pair of wooden needles, I didn’t like how grabby they were (which actually made me sad, because they were beautiful and I loved *watching* myself knit with them). Perhaps someday I’ll figure out how to justify the expense of some of the other slick, pointy options out there, and then I’ll really be able to say what my favourites are.
If you’re looking for slick and pointy, I think you’d love the Signatures! But beware, they’re really spendy…
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