They've barely begun addicting people to their new nickel-plated needles and today I come home to an email announcing that DyakCraft** is now taking orders for a limited run of an even newer line called Black Nickel. Nickel plating with a black pigment added so that the needles look like polished hematite (scroll down to second photo at link to see 'em). Same slickness but less shiny so easier on the eyes (reduced light reflection).

So SO tempting! But I'll be good and wait until my regular Nickels get here and see if that surface plating works well for me.

Why do I (and so many other addicts knitters get so excited about this line of needles? It's all about the pointy bits. The majority of knitting needles are made in the easiest shape for the manufacturers to produce: a cylinder with the end ground to a point in a very similar way to a sharpened pencil. So there's a miniscule "bump" where the cylinder becomes point. The obviousness of it varies from brand to brand: Addi has a longer taper but still has the obvious transition from tip to cylinder, Signature changes the finish at the transition which might even add to the "bump" sensation, Hiya Hiya and Knitter's Pride have obvious "pencil" points. Those are some of the high end brands; the cheaper and bargain brands are all pencil-like as well.

But if you go back and look at those DyakCraft needles again, they completely lack that sharpened pencil appearance and there is absolutely no trace of transition bump. Their wood and steel needles are the same. Just a long smooth tapering transition from tip to cylinder with absolutely nothing to slow down the movement of yarn. And we knitters, we LOVE speed! (honestly, after being spoiled rotten by my various DyakCraft needles, whenever I pick up my Addi Turbos ... which I thought were fabulous when I first started using them ... I now feel like I'm trying to knit with extra-blunt chopsticks)

**P.S. That's not a typo in the names ... the owners of the company do spell their surname with an "i" and the company name with a "y". No idea why.

Tags: knitting