Denise or Knit Picks?

About five years ago - or maybe a little more - I purchased a set of Denise Interchangeable needles. About to go on vacation, I was sold on the fact that I would no longer have to search out the Stedmans in little northern towns to find the size of needle that I thought I had packed. For all of the years since, I have used them exclusively. No other needle has touched my hands. Until recently.

I love the Denise needles. Plastic tips - they make no noise and are easy on the hands.

Their great 'poke & twist' joining system makes changing tips so easy. And they simply don't come apart unless you 'twist & unpoke'.

Then there are the joiners. Never will you be stuck without the correct cable length. Just keep joining cables together. Need to put work on hold? Just remove the tip and add a button. A great system.

But if there is one thing wrong with them, it is their universal cable size. It is quite thick. Not so much when using the lager size needles, but when using the threes and fours, it can mean a lot of reefing the yarn around.

Then someone told me about Knit Pick Options Needles. I resisted for a long time. I had my beloved Denises after all.

But finally, not wanting to be left out of something so current in the knitting world, I purchased a set of Knit Pick Options. WOW!! Slick.

No problem with thick cables here. And those points. I've been known clean my teeth with them. After an evening of knitting, movies and popcorn, why take time to run for dental floss with those points at my finger tips.

But they are slippery. Sometimes I find my hands cramping. I think I hold them differently, fearing the loss of stitches on those slippery needles.

And I hate the little 'torq' thingy that one uses to fit the tip on to the cable. Within minutes of opening my kit, I lost one. Found it later, but for a few days, I worried every time a visitor sat on the chesterfield.

And by the photos, you can see, I have had to make my own kit. With labeled pockets for the tips. Not nearly so slick as the Denise kit, but it will do.

My perfect set of needles would combine the best of both sets. Plastic needle tips, marked for size, with a "poke & twist' changing system. Thin cables with joiners for those extra big projects. And don't forget the Readers' Digest sized storage system. Now, that would be perfection.