Are you thinking about purchasing a new interchangeable knitting needle set? Or maybe you’ve never splurged on such a purchase! Well, here’s a few of my thoughts of the ChiaoGoo Red Lace Interchangeable set!
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Overall Impressions:
I love this needle set! The connections between the needles and the cables are so smooth – it doesn’t feel like you’re knitting with an interchangeable set. Some past sets I’ve worked with, would often come apart easily at the connections and make it difficult to knit with. I would constantly worry that the needle and the cable would fall apart while knitting and I would lose my work (and it’s happened before!). I do not worry about that with this set (more on that below). I would 110% recommend this set for anyone who is looking!
Needle Sizes:
The set comes with 13 different needles sizes ranging from size 2 to size 15! They are all 4” in length and stainless steel! Basically, you’ll be covered for all of your projects! The only thing I can think of is since it doesn’t come with a size 1, you may need that size if you like to knit socks using a size 1 needle. So far, all of the projects I’ve wanted to knit since getting this set for my birthday last year, have worked perfectly from this set!
Cable Sizes:
Since there is quite the range in needle sizes, you will get two sets of cables – Small and Large – for a total of 8 cables! There are (2) 8”, 14” and 22” making circular needles for your projects 16”, 22” and 30” when you add the needles.
The cables are extremely smooth and do not get caught on your knitting! It’s super easy to slide your knitting from the cable to the needle.
Connection Pieces:
The set also comes with these little connection pieces – one small and one large. You can use them to put two cables together – making it even longer! I used the connection piece when I had to rip back on a project and I didn’t have a long enough cable available to use (since I was knitting with the appropriate size). It worked for the purpose that I needed it for, but I wouldn’t want to knit a long project with the connection piece in the middle. It makes it a little bit harder to knit with overall.
Lifeline Holes:
The cables comes with a little hole on each size that you typically use to tighten the needle to the cable. There is another purpose for this hole – adding a lifeline while you’re knitting! I love this feature and it’s pretty simple to do!
I couldn’t find any instructions on how to use the lifeline holes that are built in to the cables, so I figured out how to do it and made this video for anyone who may be interested in this feature!
T Key:
Each set also comes with a couple of T-keys for you to be able to tighten the needle to the cable while you are twisting them together. I would definitely recommend you do this each time you are putting a needle and cable set together! It just makes it extra secure and ensures that they won’t fall a part on you while you’re knitting! If you use the T-key to do this, I would be surprised to hear you have issues with the connections coming a part, unless you knit really rough and pull the needle hard while knitting.
Extras:
Stitch Markers – The set surprised me with a whole range of stitch markers in different sizes. They seem to be made from a resin or plastic material. Some of them fit together to make additional sizes.
End Stoppers – These come in handy when you need to borrow the needle off a project that you are currently working on. You can easily screw them to the end of the cable to keep your knitting from falling off the cable while you’re working on a different project! (Are you a monogamous knitter or do you have multiple projects going on at once?)
Needle Ruler – Maybe this is in case you can’t read the print on each needle or have mixed up the spot for each one in the case. You can put the needles inside the ruler to figure out the size. It could also work to measure your swatch gauge for your project!
Case – The set comes in a beautiful cloth case with zippers and a little pocket in the front to hold your extra items! This makes it really nice to keep your set all together and you don’t have to have a separate notions pouch if you don’t want one (but let’s be real!).
Let me know down in the comments down below if you have this set? If you do, do you like it? Have you been wanting to get it? Any additional thoughts? If you decide to purchase it after reading my review, I would appreciate if you purchased from Amazon using my link. I will get a small commission, but it won’t cost you any extra!
