Old friend, new friend.
New needle above, old needle below
I loved my old Lantern Moon ebony needles, from the very first stitch. The wood was warm, and smoother than bamboo. The needles had enough grip for my stitches to slide, but not descend into chaos. The tips were just pointy enough for me. I even loved the *sound* of the needles gently clicking.
The only thing I didn’t like? The join between the cable and the needle. There was a distinct gap where the swivel cord came into the brass connector. It wasn’t a big deal, until I started designing with a lot of fancy stitches that required multiple yarn overs. It was hard to scoot my stitches and yarn overs from the cable onto the left needle so I could work them with the right needle. That eventually drove me to another needle, which turned out to be the Hiya Hiya stainless (regular point, rather than sharp). It’s nice to have a variety of needles for different projects; each needle has a purpose.
When I found out that Lantern Moon had been sold to Knitters Pride, I wanted to try the new needles to see if they had a cable join more to my liking. Sally at Close Knit ordered a needle for me to try out.
New needle above, older needle below. See how the taper on the new needle connector comes down to meet the cable? No hard bump between cable and connector for stitches and yarn overs to catch on. And it’s still a swivel cable, which is nice. Will the lovely lettering stay put after years of knitting? Maybe not, but it’s not a deal breaker. I have many needle gauges.
I took the new needle with me to Knit Maine, to use for my YO? YO! Fun and Fancy Elongated Stitches class, which is all about the multiple yarn overs!
Verdict? A very smooth swivel join. It was a pleasure to knit with these (US6 24” circular) needles. No problem moving my stitches and yarn overs up to the needle! I also knit a brioche cowl on these with worsted weight yarn. At some point I’d love to try the interchangeable needles too; they offer both a fixed join and a swivel join. And that would give me a chance to compare joins at different needle sizes, too. Someday!
PDXKnitterati 
Love to hear about manufacturers making improvements, Michele; and I’m sure that users like you – busily using their products 24/7 – are even happier ! 🙂
I was really pleased with the improvement!
I’m glad the join is better but looking at the first picture the tip of the new needle looks a lot more blunt than the old. That would be a deal breaker for me.
It’s super zoomed in for that picture. It doesn’t feel any different than my other needles. But I don’t like mine super pointy, either!
I have tried the new ones and I love them. The needles are like KP Dreamz, which I’ve used for years, but the new swivel cords are a game changer! I’ve packed away all my old KP cords and now use the new LM cords on everything!
P.S. Kmotters Pride, Lantern Moon, Knitpicks and Lykke can all use the same cords.
That is so great that the cords for all of these are interchangeable. I haven’t tried the Lykke needles yet; are they pointy/not pointy?
I think the Lykke, Dreamz, and Lantern Moon are almost identical. Sometimes I use a different tip on each end of the cord and I can’t tell the difference. (I have a naughty cat that chews up wooden needles, so I have several “widow” tips.)
Cats? Naughty? Who knew!
Very helpful! Thank you! I’ll try the new needle!
So glad the new needles suit you! They look like good ones 🙂
I love my Interchangeable set. I heard some people on Reddit say that they had problems with the cable coming unscrewed, but I’ve done a bunch of projects on mine and never had this issue. (Maybe they didn’t use the included tightening tool?) They are such nice needles, and I love the swivel.
I’m sold on these, and I got a set of smalls. I did have to buy some longer cables, but I was happy to do it. Hearing that they’ll fit with other needle tips is icing on the cake.