Review: Kollage Square Circular Needles

Rating: * * * * * (5 out of 5 stars)
Company: Kollage Yarns
Product: Square Circular Needles
Price: $15.50 – $16.50

© Kollage Yarns

I had never used square needles before I got these and was quite skeptical of them. The concept seemed too weird. Knitting needles are supposed to be round, right? How could these square ones possibly work and be comfortable? I've been all about trying new [knitting related] things these days, so I went into the product test as open minded as I could be. And guess what? Turns out I love these needles!


Firm Vs. Soft Cables
Kollage offers their square circular needles with two types of cables. The K-Kable is very soft. The cable has absolutely no memory. If that doesn't suit your style then they also have a firm cable (no clever name, just "firm"). This one is more like the standard circular cable. It's still flexible, but will hold the circular shape.

Originally I got two of the 24" firm cable circular needles in US sizes 4 and 5. I was so impressed by the needle tips and feel of them in my hand that I went and purchased two more needles (US 5 and 6) in the 40" length for two lace shawls I was about to cast on. This time I opted to get the flexible K-Kable. In reviews online it seemed that knitters had mixed feelings about the very flexible cable. I hate wrestling with stiff cables while I'm working on lace, so the cable that doesn't "kink, kurl, or knot" sounded very appealing. I'm happy I went with the k-kable considering I specifically had shawl knitting in mind. However, I can see how people would find the cable too floppy. If I were planning on knitting something in the round (like a sweater) then I would want the firm cable to help hold the piece.


Pros

• Sharp tips
• Smooth joins
• Flexible cables

Super pointy tips! The tips are what really got my attention. They're fabulous for knitting lace, or anything else, but lace is my obsession. The needles themselves are also smooth and the joins are seamless. Both major pros when judging knitting needles.

Cons

• Needle to cable ratio (shorter cable length only)

I ran into one problem with these needles. I have 2 of the 24" firm cable circulars in sizes 5 (3.75mm) and 6 (4mm). The firm cable is nice and the needle itself is still awesome. However, I wasn't fond of the needle length in proportion to the cable length. The needle seemed too long to me and I couldn't comfortably


Materials
Kollage square needles are made from high grade aluminum in a titanium color. Folks that like to keep track of where items are made may also enjoy that 100% of the production takes place in the United States.


Other Thoughts
It's recommended on the Kollage website that you make sure to work a gauge swatch before beginning your project with square needles. Apparently it's common for knitters to need to go up a size on the squares versus round needles. I knit extremely loose, so I'm hoping using the square needles make my knitting more "normal".

Kollage makes the same square needles as double points (dpns) and I'm very tempted to buy a few sets. Not that I use dpns all that often, but for the times that I do they'd be nice to have. Currently the only dpns I own are Brittany Birch and, while I liked them as a new knitter years ago, I find they are very blunt and inefficient. The next time I cast on for a hat I'll probably purchase a set of the Kollage square dpns in the size necessary for the decrease section.

What I really want to know is will there be an interchangeable set? Because if there is then my wallet is going to be in serious trouble!


Another Opinion
My Mom learned to knit about 8 months ago and is currently trying her hand at knitting her first lace shawl (fingering weight yarn). She stopped by a few days ago to get started with me watching over her. The design uses twisted ribbing on the edge. I watched as she struggled with the stitches and then suggested she try using my new Kollage Square Circs. This is her feedback:

I'm a very new knitter. Last week I began my first ever mystery knit-along, which started by casting on 457 stitches. I was using my KnitPicks Sunstruck interchangeable needles, which I love. However, when I started knitting row one, I was having a very difficult time inserting the tip through the back loop of the cast on stitches. It was suggested I switch to Kollage Square needles with the soft K-Kable. Wow, what a difference! As much as I like my KnitPicks needles, the switch to the Kollages made knitting that much easier. The tips are so pointy the needles just slide through the stitch loops with incredible ease. I was awed. Not only did the Kollages make the first row easier, but I found myself more confident as I continued since I no longer needed to concentrate quite as hard to get the needle tip properly through the loop. - Georgianne Jackofsky (GrannySquare on Ravelry)

View Kollage Square Needles

New Designs: The Analucia Shawl

It's a gorgeous Saturday here on northern long island. The sun is shining, the garden is growing, and new designs are forming on my needles. I'm working on the Analucia shawl, formerly referred to as "Grandma's shawl" while it awaited a proper naming. I designed and am knitting this for my maternal grandmother, Angelina Lucia, to wear to my cousin's wedding at the end of the month. I had hoped it would be off the needles and blocking by today so I could give it to her tomorrow, but I had several perfectionist moments that caused me to rip back. I'll just have to make a trip over to her house some time in the next week or two.

I love the design of this shawl so much that I decided it was going to be my next mystery KAL. Originally my plan for Summer KAL knitting was a laceweight design, but sometimes you just have to go with the flow and this shawl is what was flowing off my needles.

The pattern is free! In the past I've always done paid KALs, but I decided to change that. The pattern will be free to download until we cast on June 28. After that the pattern will be a $5.00 download. If you go to download the pattern now all you'll actually only be getting the introduction sheet with a materials list, gauge guide, yardage requirements, etc. By downloading this piece now you'll automatically receive the clues free as they're released.

Analucia will be available in 3 sizes: Shawlette, shawl, and large shawl. It's a lace design, so a solid yarn is recommended. Something that a lot of folks are happy with is there will be 7 shorter clues instead of my usual 4 larger ones. All the info about this and clue release dates is in the PDF download.

Clicking the download link will automatically apply the coupon that allows you to download this pattern for free. Pattern updates and clues will be sent to the email address used for the download. To receive updates via Ravelry please visit the Ravlery pattern page and download there.

To Ravelry Participants,

If you're on Ravelry and planning on participating in the Analucia KAL please take the time to mark the pattern as a favorite and/or queue and add it to your projects. This helps the pattern stay active and allows more people to find it to participate!

What's on my Needles: 4/24/13

Happy Windsday, Pooh!
It's not actually windy. I'm just a fan of Winnie the Pooh.
So anyway, what's on my needles this week? I've got 2 active projects. One is about 75% done and the other I just cast on for yesterday.

The project that's further along is a fingering weight lace shawl I'm designing and knitting for my Grandma to wear to my cousin's wedding at the end of May. When I began knitting it I was simply going to publish the pattern as part of my next Tolkien collection that will be coming out in the Fall. However, the more I knit the more I realized this would make a really good mystery knit-along shawl. So, I will soon be opening registration for the MKAL (mystery knit-along). I'm thinking cast on day will be sometime around July 1. This puts the start after my current MKAL (Minerva) ends and gives us approximately 2 months to gather materials. Hopefully that's enough. I opened Minerva 3 months in advance which was good and bad at the same time. It let me send everyone yarn that wanted to buy it from me, but I feel like there's a little to much down time between yarn purchase and cast on.

My intention for the next MKAL had been to do a laceweight project for the Summer, but sometimes ya just gotta go with the flow. Oh, and I forgot to mention, this next KAL will be free! Pattern will remain a free download until the day we cast on. Then it will revert to a $5.00 download. I'm using my own yarn (Aria sparkle), but any fingering weight will do. As always, KAL participants will receive a discount if purchasing my yarn for my KAL. Also, something new I'll be doing for this round is offering skeins of my yarn undyed at a lower price, so if you like to dye your own you can do so (solid or semi solids will work best). I'm actually knitting this shawl with the yarn undyed because Grandma wanted something creamy white.

My other WIP is a colorwork hat. I don't do colorwork very often, so I tend to forget how much I actually like it. I'm not a huge fan of two-color ribbing, but I like the way it looks for color hats, so I started this design like that. Now that I'm past that bit and into the design it's fun knitting. Seeing the shapes grow with each round is amazing. Last night I was so tired, but I didn't want to stop knitting because I wanted to see how the next round of the pattern looked. Completely doesn't matter that I designed it and know exactly what it's going to look like.

I think that's all I've really got going that I can talk about. Unfortunately no photos of either WIP since one will be a mystery knit and the other is being knit for a publication that won't be out until the Fall.

So what's on your needles this Windsday?