Knitting Needle Review: KA 9.5" Circular Knitting Needles

While I was at the LYS, the owner, Dawn, showed me these wonderful new knitting needles.  She was working up a pair of mittens on them.  They looked wonderful and just what I needed!  The needles were a small diameter circular needle, 9.5" as I would find out later.  The needles themselves were tiny!  I had to wonder how practical they were to use, but Dawn swore they were wonderful.  I decided to give them a try.  I picked up the KA circular needles in a size 6 and size 4 at 9.5".

I'll be honest, when I first picked up the stitches for the leg of the longies I was making, I was a bit skeptical.  They were quite fiddly to use.  I didn't know if I would get the hang of them.  Of course, Dawn had told me that they were best for more than 56 stitches and I was using decently less, only 44, but I decided to give it a go.  I wasn't sure how much of a disaster they would turn out to be, but I would get there, and I could always switch back to DPNs, right?  At first I was beginning to think I'd have to.  I had to decrease to 38 stitches before I was done!  Then I had to switch to smaller needles for ribbing!  This would be a nightmare!

Even so, I would give these needles a fair chance.  I'd knit through he whole leg, no matter what the slog, and then I'd decide once I got to the other leg.  I wanted to make a fair and accurate judgment, and I know to make up my mind after knitting only a couple inches wouldn't be fair.  Besides, these needles weren't exactly cheap!

As I worked with these needles for a while, I found that I did get used to them.  It took a while, but then I started to work with them as naturally as any other needles.  They just flowed.  Even though the diameter of the leg on the longies was smaller than suggested, I found that I stopped having problems after a while.  I was able to knit much faster than on DPNs, and without the problems like laddering.  I absolutely love that benefit, as laddering is a problem that gets on my nerves more than any other.  I found that the needles just soared!  Yes, they were still a bit fiddly at times, but I didn't have any of the struggle that I originally did.  I think I just had to get used to them.  Better still, they were the perfect needles to use for the legs on the longies.  They were just the right size and so convenient.  I'm finding I adore them!  I may not use anything else!

I have to admit, when it got to the ribbing, I had some questions in my mind.  At first the stitches seemed a bit stretched out, which I thought might get in the way of ribbing doing exactly what it was intended to do, but it seems like it won't be a problem at all.  Now that the leg is finished, I'm finding that the ribbing looks exactly as it should.

These needles are actually quite lovely.  The bamboo is excellent, but I can imagine it would be problems for anyone who doesn't like bamboo.  The needles spin freely on the cables, avoiding any problems with the needles and cables twisting.  They're really a wonderful product.  I'm finding that I quite enjoy knitting with them and will probably use them in a variety of sizes for a variety of projects.  I just can't wait to get some for socks!