Bamboo Splinters

My needles are here! Friday was a good day; for one thing, it was Friday - Fridays are always good, but it was extra good because the knitting needles I had ordered arrived! And to top it off, we went out for all-you-can-eat sushi!

The needles are all bamboo from eKnittingNeedles.com and they are sweet. I kind of went overboard when I saw the prices - an entire set of needles for $30. After buying a few pairs from Michaels from $8-$18 a pair, 30 dollars for a whole set of 30 needles was a steal. Now my math is pretty bad without a calculator, but I think that works out to a dollar a set - Score! I ordered three sets, a set of single points (14"), a set of double points (8"), and a set of circulars.

What You Get

For the single point set, you get 30 pairs in the set. The double point set is a 75 piece set, with 5 needles per size - so that's 15 sets of dpns. And for the circulars you get 15 of then. So for the dpns and the circulars, they work out to 2 dollars each - still a whole lot cheaper than getting them at that at your local Michaels, even after factoring in the $CDN/$US exchange rate and shipping.
Comparing the eKnittingNeedles.com needles to Clover/Takumi needles, they seem comparable for the single and double point needles. Honestly, I cannot see a difference in quality. Both feel equally smooth and equally stiff. On the single point needles, Clover uses an oblong knob whereas the eKnittingNeedles use a rounded knob as you can see in the picture. But after checking other Clover needles in my collection, Clover also uses the rounded knobs. Both Clover and eKnittingNeedles brand/stamp the needle size onto the side of the needles. The double point needles from the two companies would be identical if it wasn't for the different stamps used to indicate the size.

The circular needles a little are different. Clover circulars are nice. They use what looks like a solid clear plastic cable to connect the needles. The connection between the bamboo needles and the plastic cable is clean and slick. You can see a small piece of bamboo coloured plastic making the transition from the bamboo needle to the clear plastic cable. The connection feels solid too.

The circular eKnittingNeedles are different. Instead of a clear solid plastic cable, eKnittingNeedles uses coloured plastic tubing which seems to be just glued to the tapered back end of the bamboo needle. Feeling the connection, I can feel a little roughness from the excess glue. The connection feels solid though. I'm not sure if the use of tubing instead of solid plastic makes a difference when it comes to knitting. The tubing is easier to bend than the solid plastic and the tubing size increases with the size of the needle. I'm pretty sure that there were only a few sizes for tubing, but eKnittingNeedles seem to have used the small tubing for the small needles, medium sized tubing for the medium needles and so on. This might be a good thing since it keeps the loops in your knitting close to the size of the needle even when they are on the tubing. Other than the tubing and the bamboo needle feels the same as the Clovers.

Shipping

The needles arrived in a simple bubble wrap lined envelope which worried me at first, but, I guess with such a large order, all the needles formed a pretty strong mass of bamboo. None of the needles cracked or snapped - even the really thin needles (2mm/US size zero). I have no idea when I will ever use the 2mm needles; they are really thin - I'm talking toothpick thin. eKnittingNeedles charges a flat $4 shipping fee for all Canadian orders over $15. They shipped by USPostal so it took a little longer (approx.2 wks) than a courier. Not sure if there is an agreement between the US and Canada on the free trade of knitting needles but Canada Customs did not slap me with duty or GST.

Waxing Your Bamboo

After searching on amazon.com, I found a bunch sellers, offering similar bamboo needles. On one of the sets, a reviewer mentioned needing to wax them with carnuba wax before using. Makes sense, I thought, since carnuba wax makes your car look shiny and polished, it should make the needles just as shiny and polished. Carnuba wax is also pretty safe since it is used in the candy industry for, what else, making candy look shiny and polished - just look at the ingredients on a package of gummies or Twizzlers. So I went to the local tire chain in Canada and got a tin of wax, a big tin of wax; it seems that wax does not come in a smaller size. Well, I can always wax my car afterwards, and possibly Sandy's car and the neighbor's cars.

After waxing a set of needles, I'm not sure if it made that much of a difference (bottom two needles were waxed - can you tell?). The waxed ones look almost the same as the unwaxed ones. They do feel a little different however. The waxed ones feel waxy - well duh, Jamie, you just waxed them. What I mean is, they do not feel as slick as the unwaxed needles. The wax seems to add a bit more friction - which might be a good thing for keeping the yarn from slipping off the needles. The waxed needles also feel smoother than the unwaxed needles. But this extra smoothness is very very slight. The unwaxed needles are already pretty smooth. So you can wax your needles if you need the extra friction coefficient, but otherwise waxing is not needed. I'm still going to wax mine though because I have a big tin of wax to use up.

Conclusion

Bamboo knitting needles from eKittingNeedles.com are a good buy. They are affordable; you get alot of them for 30 bux; shipping is easy and without hassle; and to me they seem to be pretty good needles. The single and double point needles are pretty much the same as the Clover/Takumi needles. The circular needles use appropriately gauged tubing to connect the needles instead of the solid plastic cable used by Clover. Although the connection between the tubing and the bamboo needle is not as clean as the Clovers, it feels just as solid. For the price, I think these needles are great - besides, as one reviewer on amazon.com stated, you spend your money on good yarn, not on the needles.