Congratulations on all your fun purchases. I love the Knitpicks sets, from the nickel plated needles to the Harmony wood ones. (The clear acrylic ones are cute, but not my favorites.)
"Stickier" yarns, such as the wool/mohair you bought, will probably do better on metal or very very smooth wood. Usually people use "sticker" yarns with slicker needles and vice-versa.
I hope you have lots of fun with your needles and knitting.
Stickier yarns are the fuzzier ones - mohair, for example, loves to stick to itself. It's fluffy and furry and, well, sticky. Most of the time, people find that this yarn works better on slick needles, so you don't have sticky yarn and sticky needles.
Silk, rayon, bamboo or alpaca are examples of slick yarns; they're just less grabby. They don't stick to themselves as much, so sometimes people find they prefer to knit them with needles that have a bit of grab, so the stitches stay in place a bit more.
Try feeling the different yarns at your local yarn shop - ask the people there to show you some silk and some mohair (not in the same yarn, although that's lovely. *grin*) and see what you think.
Also I think if you read other posts with the needles tag you'll see posts with long comment threads about Knitpicks and other needles. Knitpicks are the best according to my knitting teacher :)
I really do like the Knitpicks needles. They aren't 100% perfect, but they work really well for 95% of all of my knitting needs.
I've had two problems with them: 1) sometimes (i've had 2 instances) the wood needle comes apart from the metal join. This is solved by alittle bit of super glue (being careful to glue with the stick pointing downwards)
2) in one case of the smaller needle size (US 2.0), one of the needles split right down the middle at the tip. This was only one needle, and I'm sure it's because I was knitting pretty darn tight.
For #2 if you contact them they replace them. I have the circs set (which I haven't used much) and the straights in 14 inch... both the Harmony wood and I LOVE THEM. That said, I have had 2 different size needles split on the colored wood join and I contact them and they send me new ones! I don't even have to send the broken ones back AND the sent me the new pair! (I do it on the straights, which is what I use more.)
I have had lots of breakage with the clear acrylic ones, but they are super great about sending you out new ones, but keep having the same issues and I am not a tight knitter. I love the harmony wood ones, but would stay away from the clear ones.
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"Stickier" yarns, such as the wool/mohair you bought, will probably do better on metal or very very smooth wood. Usually people use "sticker" yarns with slicker needles and vice-versa.
I hope you have lots of fun with your needles and knitting.
Stasia
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Silk, rayon, bamboo or alpaca are examples of slick yarns; they're just less grabby. They don't stick to themselves as much, so sometimes people find they prefer to knit them with needles that have a bit of grab, so the stitches stay in place a bit more.
Try feeling the different yarns at your local yarn shop - ask the people there to show you some silk and some mohair (not in the same yarn, although that's lovely. *grin*) and see what you think.
Stasia
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I've had two problems with them:
1) sometimes (i've had 2 instances) the wood needle comes apart from the metal join. This is solved by alittle bit of super glue (being careful to glue with the stick pointing downwards)
2) in one case of the smaller needle size (US 2.0), one of the needles split right down the middle at the tip. This was only one needle, and I'm sure it's because I was knitting pretty darn tight.
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I have the circs set (which I haven't used much) and the straights in 14 inch... both the Harmony wood and I LOVE THEM. That said, I have had 2 different size needles split on the colored wood join and I contact them and they send me new ones! I don't even have to send the broken ones back AND the sent me the new pair! (I do it on the straights, which is what I use more.)
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