New Knitting Needles -- my thoughts on Knitter's Pride Needles:

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Well, so I got some new knitting needles.  That, in and of itself, is not an oddity.  But the fact that I was at a different yarn store, and thusly ended up with a different brand of needle, well, that's the novelty.

I hadn't been to Romni Wools in ages, partially because they used to have a step up to the front of their shop.  Well, I found out at the Toronto Knitter's Guild meeting that they now have a StopGap ramp, so, over I went!  It worked out almost perfectly (I did have a moment of awkwardness with their door), but otherwise, yeah, the StopGap ramp did exactly what it's supposed to do! (P.S.  I also found out that The Toronto Knitter's Guild Discount applies to needles at Romni Wools, too!)

Anyway, I picked up some double-pointed needles while there, but, of course, they were a different brand the ones I'm used to getting.  I've never tried the Knitters Pride needles before, and I'm fascinated by the results of my experiment, so, here goes!

The first set of needles was a pair of 2.25mm Nova Platinas, and I put them to work in the Bricks Birthday Socks.  I prefer dpns over magic loop for sock knitting, so I was glad to make the switch.  (If you're curious, I talked about the yarn bowl in the photo in my last post, and you can find the Rose Progress Keeper I'm using *here.)

First, wow, the KP Platinas are much longer then my usual HiyaHiya needles, and I like it!  I'm also surprised and impressed that the needles have the size, and the name of the store, imprinted on the side.  The text on these needles is also much easier to read then the teeny-tiny text on the HiyaHiya dpns (and my newer HiyaHiya dpns don't have the size written on them at all).  Two points strongly in their favour there!
 They also seem a tiny bit sharper at the tip then my HiyaHiya's do -- I've put a tiny hole through the callus on my index finger!  And, the Regia Sock yarn isn't splitting nearly as much with the Platinas, either.  So, another point for the Platinas as well.

My biggest worry about switching needles was that there would be a noticeable tension difference where I made the switch. But the answer seems to be that no, that's not a concern, so I'm quite happy with that!

 So, overall, I quite like the Knitter's Pride Platina Needles, and if I need another set, I'll definitely look into these again.

Now, onto the second set of needles I got!

The second set of needles was also my very first set of square needles, and I have to say, I thought it would be more different to work with them!

I put them to work in my version of the Beekeeper's Quilt by Tiny Owl Knits.  I started the blanket ages ago, as part of Eat.Sleep.Knit's *Booster Club challenge, which is still continuing this year!  (You don't have to finish the entire blanket for the challenge, you only have to do 15 hexagons for this year, so if you're interested, I suggest you check it out -- it's a great way to use up yarn scraps!)

The yarn I'm working with for this hexagon is a thinner yarn, it's leftovers from a *MadelineTosh Unicorn Tail I got for another project, in the colour "Cousteau" (I really like this colour!).  I wanted to test these with a fingering-weight yarn, since that's most of what's going to be on these needles, so that's what I pulled out. 

Honestly, I expected more of difference when working with the cubics needles.  There really wasn't too much of a difference in the knitting!  I didn't have to alter my grip or change anything in my knitting process.   It does, however, seem that my stocking stitch is coming out a little crisper on the cubics, so there's a point in their favour as well!

End conclusion:  both of these are needles that I'm happy I bought, and I'll probably slowly add both of these brands to my ever-growing stash of needles.