$8 for the entire set!
Addi Turbos are like Starbucks. They jacked up the prices so high on their needles that now everyone has gotten into their heads that all circulars cost $10+. With the exception of the few, many needle manufacturers, including Chinese ones like Hiya Hiya and Chiaogoo can get away with much higher prices than they could have before.
I don’t have to tell you that these needles probably cost pennies to produce and only cost a few bucks where they are sold in their native lands. It’s just that North America as a whole have become a blatantly overpriced market for all things related to knitting.
Back to needle dilemma: as I mentioned before in one of my posts, if you skip Skacel and buy Addi needles direct from overseas sellers, those $15-$20 needles could be had for $6-7. That mad expensive Addi Click set? Buy it for $100. That’s including international shipping. Wooden DPNs? Buy all sizes from EBay for less than $1/set (5 needles). The cheap bamboo ones are no better or worse than the uber expensive Lantern Moon ones and in fact, I found some of the cheap Chinese ones to be of much higher quality than those that cost 5-8 times more. (so much for that old saying: you get what you pay for)
My recent find is a whole set of metal circular needles on Ebay from various sellers in China (don’t get me started on the whole “Buy USA” preaching. I don’t want to hear it)
Needles close up
If you type in “steel circular needles” or “stainless circular needles” into the ebay search box, you’ll see them in various lengths – 16″ 24″, 32″ and grouped into sets like the above picture. An added bonus is that each needle comes with a free darning needle! Yep, so if you buy the whole set, you get 11 pointy tipped embroidery needles to sew up seams til kingdom come. (I seem to have a habit of losing them every other month so this was especially useful)
Now for the review: the metal being stainless steel, have less of a gliding effect than that of nickel plated needles like Knit Picks or Addi but still feels pretty slick. The cable is coiled steel identical to the ones found in Chiaogoo Red circulars (they are on the stiff side being steel).
Cables close up
The joins are fairly smooth an I didn’t have any problems with yarn snagging over that area. So far so good. But none of the needles have the sizes written anywhere on the needle (neither does Knit Picks for that matter so all is forgiven. And the Addi ones have the sizes printed on the cable which gets rubbed off fairly quickly so that’s moot) What did take me by surprise was that some of the sizes were in between U.S. sizes so I didn’t know how to categorize them. (I have all my needles organized by sizes in separate zipper pouches BTW. Yes, I’ve got knitting OCD on top of knitting ADD. Anyone got any knitter’s Ritalin?)
If you don’t have a needle size checker, you really should because you’ll have the darndest time trying to figure out which one is the size you’re looking for. I have a few of these size checkers but I like the good ole Susan Bates Knit Check available in most big box stores. (get it using Jo-Ann or Michael’s 50% off coupon for a mere $1. The all metal flat construction really comes in handy when everything is smooshed into a bag and beaten around like I typically do.) Plus it’s got a gauge checker and straight edge ruler so 3 in 1!
- Susan Bates Knit Chek
Anyway, I think the stainless steel set is a good buy for those of you wanting to buy additional back-up needles without breaking the bank. Mind you, I wouldn’t use these as my go-to needles but when I’ve got too many WIPS and need to grab another needle to start yet another project, they come in quite handy. Oh, and I use those darning needles all the time.
*all pics, except the first one, ganked from various websites.
Tags: cheap needles, circular needles, Ebay, knitting needles, needle size checker, shopping
I recently discovered the joys of buying Addis from European retailers. Needles + shipping still cost less than my LYS. I was considering buying the Addi Clicks but heard bad things about their joins. Do you have any input about them?