I never thought it was possible for me to become a sock knitter but this set made it more enjoyable and now I love it!
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Overall Details:
If you have been wanting to get into knitting small circumferences – like socks on 9″ circulars – this ChiaoGoo Mini set is for you! It’s so flexible and easy to adjust to make your sock knitting super comfortable.
I personally am not a huge fan of knitting with Magic Loop – so the 9″ circulars were a game changer for me to be successful with sock knitting. I love just getting to knit around and around without having to stop or move needles around or readjust too much!
They did take some getting used to though! These needles and cables are extremely tiny! When I started my first cuff – I felt so fumbly and like they were super fiddly and those are two words you do not want to use to describe your knitting! I would be lying if I didn’t say that I didn’t LOVE them in the beginning – but after finishing my first sock – was getting the hang of it!
One of the things that helped me to feel more comfortable were to play around with different combinations to see what felt the most comfortable for me and my knitting style. Since I am an english knitter (or a thrower), I drop the right hand needle for each stitch when I wrap the yarn around the needle. Because I drop the needle each time, it was difficult to hold the needle in my right hand. A suggestion came in as a comment on my Breaking Yarn Podcast on YouTube where a thrower said they liked to put the 3″ needle on their left hand needle and the 2″ on the right hand. I decided to give it a try!
After trying the circulars with the 3″ needle in my left hand and 2″ needle in my right hand, I decided to give the opposite a try. I switched it so the 3″ needle was in my right hand and the 2″ needle was in my left hand. THIS was it! I haven’t tried another combination! Having the ever so slightly longer needle in my right hand, I have more to hold on to and grab onto when I throw my yarn – making it so much for comfortable for me!
One of the other things I love about the set – is it’s incredibly easy to switch from 9″ to magic loop to complete your toe! I’ll talk more about that in the toe section!
I am a ChiaoGoo lover for life! I am so glad I got this set and I am looking forward to also getting the sleeve set when the time comes!
What’s Included:
- 12 pairs of needle tips in two lengths – 2″ and 3″ (5 and 8 cm) in six sizes (US 0 / 2.00 mm, US 1 / 2.25 mm, US 1.5 / 2.50 mm, US 2 / 2.75 mm, US 2.5 / 3.00 mm, and US 3 / 3.25 mm). It also comes in a black case that snaps closed. The two levels of the needles are separated by 3″ on top row and 2″ on the bottom row. They are in order from smallest to largest.
- Three red patented MINI premium ropes (5″ / 13cm, 6″ / 15cm and 8″ / 20cm).
The red lace cables are amazing in this set – as well as the larger set that I also reviewed. They don’t kink and stay straight while knitting! While I was getting into sock knitting – I actually needed to get a second 5″ cable so I could have two socks going at the same time. Since I use two different lengths of needles, it works out perfectly!
- Two cable connectors. These pieces make it possible to put the cables together to make them longer – which is perfect for when you are switching to magic loop for the toe decreases!
- Two end stoppers. You can use these to keep your knitting on the cable while using your needles for another project! Then, when you’re ready to go back to that project, just take these off and put your needles back on.
- Stitch Markers. The ChiaoGoo sets include these resin stitch markers. The larger set includes multiple sizes – but this particular set only includes the small ones. It makes sense though because the larger ones would be way too large on these tiny needles. lol
- Mini Needle Gauge. The set includes the needle gauge, although – each needle has the size printed right on the needle, so I haven’t actually had a need to use this.
- Red case with clip. All of the small pieces fit neatly in the zipper on the front of the pouch and the needles and cables fit in the larger zipper section. You can clip the set to your project bag or something else.
- Cable Spanners (T-pin used to tighten the needle to the cable). You definitely want to use these – it will make the connection between your cable and needles so strong – they won’t come apart until you use them to un-tighten the connections.
Knitting Styles:
You can knit either continental or english style while knitting socks on the 9″ circulars. I personally knit english and throw my yarn with my right hand – physically dropping the needle each stitch.
Knitting the Heel Flap:
I’ve heard some people say they don’t like knitting the heel flap on the 9″ circulars, but I actually love it. It’s so easy to not need to have anything extra with you when you need to start your heel – especially if you’re doing any #CarKnitting while out and about.
One of the main reasons I think people don’t like it – is they say it hurts their hands. I personally haven’t experienced this. However, I think this depends on your personal knitting style and what works best for you.
A solution: attach a longer cable with the connection piece and do magic loop for the heel flap OR you could use a separate cable and needle to knit the heel flap independently of the 9″ circulars and then just switch back to the 9″ circulars when you pick up the gusset stitches.
Toe:
In order to finish socks after using 9″ circulars – you have to switch to magic loop or DPNs for the toe. The set makes this incredibly easy to switch to a longer cable to do the magic loop.
The set comes with these little connection pieces so you can combine the cables together to make them longer. I will just take off one of my needles, combine the two cables together (the one I’m currently using with the longest cable) and then re-attach the needle to the new cable. Then, you can slide the stitches in place where your two markers are for magic loop and complete your toe decreases!
Summary:
This set is awesome and I’m so glad that I made this purchase! I love how versatile it is and the quality of all of the pieces is great! I have full confidence that these will last a very long time and make many many pairs of socks in my knitting journey!
