Knitting with Needles

Sewing needles, that is. At the top are two sets of tatting needles from Havel's Sewing. Then I have four long doll needles from Dritz, sold two in a package. Just below that are a pair of plastic-headed hatpins, a pair of 7-inch doll needles from Havel's, and the #3-0 tatting needles that came in the Havel's set.

When I buy sewing needles to knit with, first I blunt and round the points with a steel mill file. My ideal is ballpoint-pen roundness. Then I use a nail buffing set, the kind that comes with black, white, and gray nail boards, to smooth them off. By the time I get to the gray buffing board, the points are nice and round and smooth. When you are knitting with needles this thin, you are probably using pretty fine thread or yarn, and you don't want any snagging.

These were all pretty cheap. I bought the Dritz needles at Joann's with my 40% off coupons. I have a pair of 4-0 knitting needles (that is, "real" knitting needles), and the Dritz needles are a shade thinner than those. The Havel's doll needles are almost exactly the size of the 4-0 knitting needles.

Tatting needle sizing does not match knitting needle sizing. So although the tatting needle set includes a #3-0, a #4-0, a #5-0, a #6-0, a #7, and a #8 tatting needle, these are not "000" and so on knitting needle sizes. The #3-0 tatting needle is a shade larger than the #2-0 knitting needles that came in my Susan Bates Sock Needle set. The #4-0 tatting needle is very slightly smaller than the #3-o knitting needles in the Sock set. The #7 and #8 needles are so fine that I still can't imagine knitting with them. Maybe Avital could!