Friday, December 30, 2011

Dreamz Interchangeable Knitting Needles - my evaluation

Dreamz Interchangeable Knitting Needles

Do you Dreamz in color? I finally had the time to try the new Dreamz wooden interchangeable needles and I found that I like them very much.

A bit of background first. The first interchangeable needles that I can remember were offered by Boye. The needles were steel, each size being a different color. The man designed the needles for his wife, he then designed a hard resin set where the needles snapped into the cords and he named this set after his wife, Denise. The Denise company was sold a while back to a family who has taken this set and made many changes. The Denise set has been one of my personal favorites, and the standard by which I measure other needles because I find them comfortable to use. The one complaint that I have is it is sometimes hard to read the needle size especially on the older sets and i have to admit that since I owned several (4 ) from before I started my business I often am working with the older sets although I did buy myself one of the Pink sets that supports breast cancer and the markings on the newer needle are much easier to read .

The Dreamz design is similar the Boye set and the same as the Knit Picks set but at a better price. The needles are colored wood with each size a different color. This means you can easily match up the pairs. Unlike the Boye set the cable is soft and flexible and the join to the needle is amazingly smooth. The needle tips are just pointed enough to make them easy to work with but not so pointed that they will split the yarn. Each cord comes with a small tool that can be inserted into a small hole to help you tighten the connection.

The set comes in a zippered plastic pouch with sleeves to hold the needle points and a removable pouch to hold the cables. End buttons and tightening tools are in small zip lock bags.

The basic set offers needle sizes 4 though 11. Also included are needle markers so if you transfer your work to a holder you just slip on a marker to let you know what size needle you were using.

All of this is priced at $82.00
http://patchworkfrog.com/dreamz.html. You can add to the basic set the chunky set which has needles US 13, 15, and 17 tips plus two cords, 24" and 32 " four end caps, two keys, and a flat envelope style carrying case that you can put into the larger case that holds the delux set.