I did not come into this knitting thing easily. I paid for one class at my local yarn shop (the class was free provided I bought the needles and yarn from the store) and the rest, give or take a few questions I’ve learned on my own or via YouTube.
YouTube has been such a help in learning to knit that I wanted to start sharing some of the things that I’ve learned.
One of the biggest problems that I have with my circular knitting needles is knitting on kinked-up, stiff cables. This only happens when I buy certain brands of needles that are usually found in chain craft stores or box stores like Walmart. I don’t have this problem when I buy a different (read more expensive) brand of needles through my local yarn shop but I can’t always afford them and I have a huge Freudian ID problem and PDD (project deficit disorder) when it comes to knitting and so I will rush out and buy the less expensive stiffer circular needles in order to get my project started sooner than later.
This of course results in lots of cursing and un-kinking needles as I knit and that’s when the PDD sets in and the project gets tossed aside.
After searching Google and asking Heather what to do, I learned that you can heat up the cable on the circular needle in order to achieve a more flexible, less kinked cable – definitely easier for all those must-start-now projects. Unfortunately, I didn’t really find a good tutorial so I decided to make one of my own.
You’re welcome.
You can probably (and safely) immerse the cables in water a third time but I’d do it for only 10 or 15 seconds – no longer.
Don’t submerge them all the way, leave a bit of space between the join (where the cable connects to the needle itself) and the water. It is possible to melt the glue if you don’t.
I’ve straightened a number of circular needles this way and it’s been a relief to not have to fight my circular needles every time I want to work in the round or on a large project like a blanket.
Got questions? Don’t hesitate to ask me in the comments!
I sure wish I knew how to knit – shared on Twitter!
Well that’s pretty neat, I wish I knew exactly what circular needles looked like in action! I am fascinated by knitting, but have never actually tried it!
Tried to pin but not sure it did. Nice post. I have not knitted in a long time. Do a lot of crochet tho
I’d heard about heating the cables in warm water, but had never tried it. Good to know it works. I have a mix of cheap and semi-costly needles, and prefer circulars even when I don’t need them because straight needles are clunky for me.
Is there any way to un-kink them if you’ve already started a project with them?
Typically no. Once you’ve started a project the only way to un-kink them is to either frog the project or move all of your stitches to another set of needles or stitch holders (they remind me of super size paper clips).