My Hybrid Mutant Ninja Interchangeable
Knitting Needle Kit

with thanks and apologies to
Knit Picks, Boye,
Addi, Aero, Susan Bates,
Fleegle…and Daddy
In my mania for completeness, and my dislike of buying anything twice, I compiled a spreadsheet listing every [supposedly] available needle size put out by any company on which I could find the actual diameters in millimeters. It was intended as a shopping / check list, but I quickly realized that a truly complete set of needles would include literally hundreds of circular needles in all their multitudinous lengths and various sizes—and they ain't cheap. The logic for anyone who needs to watch spending is inescapable: any interchangeable set saves purchasing (and storing and schlepping) dozens of individual circular needles.

The Knit Picks Options starter set comes with nickel-plated brass needletips in sizes 4 to 11 (including 10.5), with 13, 15 and 17 available for add-on. The cables included in the kit make 24- and 32-inch circulars, and cables can be added that will make 40-, 47-, and 60-inch circulars. The needletips are slick for faster knitting and sharp for lace knitting, the joins are seamless, and the cables are very pliable. Little "keys" help screw the tips firmly onto and off of the cables, and there are screwcaps for the cables so that the knitter can use the cables as stitchholders without fearing the loss of stitches. All this comes with a classy-looking, though rather bulky, expandable binder. The company provides excellent customer service, too.

I received a Knit Picks Options Interchangeable Needle Set for Christmas 2006, and I love it passionately. The only thing that could make the Options set better in my view would be just a few more Options: for example, cables to make 20" circulars, cable couplers to make custom cable lengths, size 10 3/4, 10 7/8 (7 mm and 7.5 mm) and other odd-size needletips, and needletips in bamboo and/or various attractive hardwoods. 16" lengths would be great, too, but I realize the length of the needletips would make the cords too short for easy use. I also recognize that making interchangeable tips for American size 8/0 (0.5 mm) through Japanese size 2 (2.7 mm) would be problematic.

I'm not completely unreasonable.

I was intrigued when I saw on Knitters Review that someone had made Boye Needlemaster needletips work on Options cables, because Boye has needle sizes no one else does. I followed the link to Fleegle's webpage, and her brilliant idea is the foundation upon which all of the following alterations are built. Fleegle's motivation for her innovation was that she prefers the slightly-less-pointy Boye tips to the sharper Options tips, but prefers the Options cables to the thicker and less pliable Boye cables.

In my case I was completely satisfied with the Options needletips (and had never had any experience of the Needlemaster set for comparison), but I really, really wanted an absolutely, utterly complete interchangeable set.

Luckily, my father is not merely an old soldier: he is a gunsmith, which drastically cuts the cost of experimentation. With his agreement to work on them, I ordered the Needlemaster set.

A few words about the Boye Needlemaster: The aluminum needletips, in sizes 2 to 15, are very nice, with scooped, moderately- sharp points, and they vary in color from size to size. These colors make it easier to be sure of not using two different needle sizes, and they're pretty. There are cords to make 20-, 24-, 29- and 36" circulars, plus there are two couplers to join the cords into custom lengths. In addition to little keys to assist getting needletips firmly screwed onto the cords, there is a little rubber gripper pad that makes the process easier, and end buttons allow use of the cables as stitchholders without fear of losing stitches. It all comes in a remarkably compact zippered folder that has a place for each piece. The aluminum Boye needletips are probably lighter than the Options; I haven't bothered to weigh either of them because neither brand feels heavy to me. Altogether, this is a very good set except for the cords, which are thicker and less pliable than the Options cords, and have bends in the ferrules in an [annoying] attempt, I suppose, to improve the angle for knitting.

My enthusiasm for the project was increased when I found that I really liked the Boye points. I could readily see myself preferring either the Boyes or the Options for any given yarn, or even stitch. Being able to switch them out would double the value of my set well beyond the advantage of adding a few extra sizes because I'm obsessive.

Following Fleegle's lead, with the needletips held firmly in a vise and using a 3-56 hand-tap, my father converted all but the 2.75 mm (size 2) Boye needletips to accept the Knit Picks Options screws. It worked! Brilliantly! And I was happy. It would have been ideal, of course, to convert the 2.75 mm needletips, too, but as Fleegle had said those are simply not big enough to gracefully accommodate the Knit Picks screws: there is only a 1/10,000th inch difference in diameter between the screw and the butt of the needletips.

With those Boye needles that were the same diameter tucked in with their Options counterparts, I put new pages in my Options binder to accommodate the Boye 3, 6, 9 and 10 needletips, which have no counterparts. Since I now had two pairs of most sizes, but only one pair of others, I ordered extra Options needletips in 6, 9 and 10, and extra Boye needletips in 3, 6, 9 and 10 for the screwtapping treatment. I now had two pairs each of all but the 17s, for which I just don't anticipate much use.

But I still didn't have 10 3/4 and 10 7/8 needletips (7 and 7.5 mm respectively)—no one makes interchangeable sets with those sizes. Fleegle mentioned that fixed circulars could be converted to needletips. So, I set out shopping for 7 and 7.5 mm fixed circulars. I couldn't find either size, in metal, sold in the US, but with the help of Knitters Review Forum members located Canadian and UK sources for 7.0 mm Addi Turbos. I ordered two.

Though 7.5 mm is (was?) a standard size 1 in the UK/Canadian system, I could not find it in metal circulars at all, anywhere, except in plastics. What I did find, in Canada, was Aero straight needles in 7.5 mm. Could we…? I ordered two pairs.

Noting that Boye and Susan Bates size 17s are larger in diameter than KP's 12 mm, at 12.5 and 12.75 mm respectively, I ordered a pair of each of those, too. And, finally, it occurred to me that the Boye size 3 needletips we had successfully converted to KP cords were actually smaller than the Knit Picks size 3. If the Boye size 3s could be screwtapped to fit, so could the Knit Picks size 3s, right? As it happened, I had one each of 24" and 32" size 3 Knit Picks fixed circulars. We heated the fixed circular needles at the joins to soften the glue, then removed the cords. Using the screwtap, my father created, urmmmm, screwholes(?) to make them screw-on needletips. The Addi Turbo 7 mm circulars, Boye 12.5 mm circulars, Susan Bates 12.75 mm circulars, and Knit Picks 3.25 mm size 3 fixed circulars all made perfect needletips! (Note: Since the above was written, KnitPicks has begun making 7.0 mm needles and needletips for sale in the European market, and these are available in the US through mailorder from those outlets. Yay!)

The Aero straights were easily cut off to achieve needletip length. However, there is a difference in structure between circulars (interchangeable or fixed) and straights in that straight needles only taper at the business end, while circulars also must taper to the join. Using a milling machine, my father tapered the Aeros at the cut-off end down to the diameter of the Knit Picks Options needletips, then screw-tapped the milled ends to create the screwholes. Another gap filled!

Short of acquiring Japanese sizes 4-7, 9-12, 14 and 15 (3.3, 3.6, 3.9, 4.2, 4.8, 5.1, 5.4, 5.7, 6.3, and 6.6 mm respectively), or adding needletips in US sizes 19, 36 or 50, this was about as complete an interchangeable circular needle set as I could reasonably hope to have. I will add the Japanese sizes someday, somehow; the really large needles I have no interest in adding since I barely find the 12 mm size 17s useable, and the KP cords are so small in relation to those sizes that I just don't think it would be a serendipitous fit. I was happy.

Then I remembered that one of the few weaknesses of the Knit Picks Options set is the lack of connectors to permit joining two or more cables together—and that the Boye Needlemaster set comes with two couplers. Using the same screwtaps that were used to convert the needletips, we converted the Boye couplers to be used with the Knit Picks cables, thus making possible completely customizeable cable lengths in addition to the standard ones. It worked perfectly. And I was happy.

Except that another Options weakness is the lack of a cord to make 20" circulars. Since I'm now a past-master at doing cord surgery, I ordered an extra pair of the 24" cables, used heat to soften the glue and remove the ferrules of one end, cut off 4" from each cord, and then glued the ferrules back on. I now had a really complete set of needletips from 3.125 mm to 12.75 mm with interchangeable cords to make circulars 20, 24, 32, 40, 47 and 60" long, plus couplers to make custom lengths. Obviously, I was happy. Right?

Welllll, except, back in the Boye Needlemaster case were those perfectly good 2.75 mm size 2 needletips. Lonely, neglected, feeling unwanted. It really bugs me to waste anything, especially something good. My first thought was to transfer the size 2 needletips and their cables into the Options binder, in their own special section. Except I still don't like the Boye cords. Then it occurred to me that we could melt the glue on those cords, remove them from their ferrules, and glue in Options cords to replace them: Boye joins with Options cords. At which point I slapped my forehead V-8 style, realizing I could have done that in the first place, and kept the Needlemaster set in its case and the Options set in its binder, and given my 81-year-old father a lot less work. Ah, well, too late for that. I won't mention that belated thought to him… Besides, I like the straight KP ferrules better than the bent Boye ferrules.

20-, 24-, 32-, 40-, 47-, 60" and custom-length
metal circular needles
#
join
size
2

Boye
Boye 2
2.75 mm
2
Boye
KP fixed 2 (larger)
3.00 mm
2
KPO
Boye 3
3.125 mm
2

KPO
KP Classic 3
3.25 mm
2
KPO
KPO/Boye 4
3.5 mm
2
KPO
KPO/Boye 5
3.75 mm
2
KPO
KPO 6
4 mm
2
KPO
Boye 6
4.25 mm
2
KPO
KPO/Boye 7
4.5 mm
2
KPO
KPO/Boye 8
5 mm
2
KPO
Boye 9
5.25 mm
2
KPO
KPO 9
5.5 mm
2
KPO
Boye 10
5.75 mm
2
KPO
KPO 10
6.00 mm
2
KPO
KP/Boye 10 1/2
6.5 mm
2
KPO
Addi 10 3/4
7 mm
2
KPO
Aero 10 7/8
7.5 mm
2
KPO
KPO/Boye 11
8 mm
2
KPO
KPO/Boye 13
9 mm
2
KPO
KPO/Boye 15
10 mm
1
KPO
KPO 17
12 mm
1
KPO
Boye 17
12.5 mm
1
KPO
Susan Bates 17
12.75 mm

I ordered extra sets of all the Knit Picks Options cords, more pages for the Options binder, and an extra set of couplers and size 2 needletips from Boye. We melted the glue from the Boye and KP joins, tossed the Boye cables and KP ferrules, and glued the KP cords into the Boye ferrules (this requires careful gluing because the cords are different diameters). I now have KP cords for my Boye-join size 2s, plus dedicated couplers and end buttons just for that one size.

Well, heck. It entered my mind, as I was working on my spreadsheet shopping / check list, that the larger of the two Knit Picks fixed size 2s, like the Japanese size 3, at 3.00 mm is larger than the Boye size 2 at 2.75 mm. If the Boye ferrule can fit into a 2.75 mm needletip, it should certainly be able to fit into a 3.00 mm, right? I ordered two of the 3.00 mm fixed Knit Picks circulars in the 24" length. We heated the joins, pulled out the cords and set them aside for later brainstorms, and my father put in screwholes using a 2-56 tap.

Meanwhile, I have the KP Options needle size tags, which I use in the pockets to identify the size of the needletips. Obviously, I now have needletips for which Knit Picks doesn't make ID tags. But, at the local pet store, they have a dog tag maker. Using it, I made round brass ID tags for my mutated needletips, so every size needletip now has its own ID tag.

Of course the Knit Picks View Sizer was no longer adequate to check all needletips; nor would the Boye or Susan Bates needle gauges work by themselves, since all lacked sizes in my kit. I got sufficient 1-pocket pages for my Options Binder to hold the KP, Boye, Susan Bates, and Nancy's gauges, plus I'm considering a needle gauge from Lacis. Between the lot of them, I can darn near cover every size known to knitter.

Note: The Denise Interchangeable Knitting Needles must be mentioned here. This set encompasses sizes 5 through 15 (sizes 17 and 19, as well as 3 longer cord lengths, are now available as add-ons) with a wide range of cord lengths, and cord couplers to create custom lengths. End buttons permit use of the cables as stitchholders without fear of losing stitches. This is a really solid set, and the softish resin needles have a certain amount of drag that can be helpful to beginners at the stitch-dropping stage. The Denises remain valuable beyond the beginner stage for travel knitting, because they are highly unlikely to upset a baggage screener. Additionally, there are soon to be interchangeable crochet hooks as part of this set, too! The company provides fantastic customer service. The only drawback to the Denise needles, except for those who just object to plastic on principle, is that the cables are relatively thick and somewhat determined to go their own way.

To sum: my KPO binder holds components that can make: 20, 24, 32, 40, 47 or 60" (or other length) metal circulars with highly flexible cords in 22 different sizes, 2.75 and 3.00 mm (Boye join set) and 3.125 to 12.75 mm (KPO join set). I have two pairs each of all needletip sizes below 12 mm, with ID tags for each size, and two of every cord length in both join sets. Each join set has its own endcaps, as well as connectors to join up to three cables together; both sets can share the "keys" and the wonderful Boye gripper pad.

And I am really, truly happy, as only a completist with a complete set can be.

Only, now, KnitPicks has introduced the colorful Harmony birch needletips for the Options set. Gotta have 'em! Then I'll have everything, finally, really...if I get the matching Harmony cable needles… Although…I really need to explore the issue of cutting up wood and bamboo circs to make them into KPOs because there are sizes KnitPicks doesn't cover in the wood, too, of course. How would we make the screwhole for repeat use? Hmmm. If I can conquer that problem, then Jenkins Woodworking does offer circular needles in sizes 12 (8.5 mm), 14 (9.5 mm) and 16 (11 mm), and Turn-of-the-Century has 11.5 mm size 16 straights…

And it does occur to me that I could create cords for 29 and 36" circs, too, the same way I created the cord for the 20" circs—the Needlemaster set had those lengths…Okay, this has promise…

KnitPicks colorful new Harmony birch needletips for the Options set.
 

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