Getting to know my Boyes

knitqueen · 09-03-2005, 04:28 PM

I just got the Boyes Needlemaster today. I had a 50% off Michael's coupon and dh said I should go for it and I did!!

So I'm excited about it but am having a bit of trouble figuring out how it's all supposed to work.

Firstly, I thought it would come with cables in 20" 24" 29" and 36" but it actually comes with cables to MAKE those sizes, in other words for most things I will have to join the cables to make longer cables, right??????

That's where my other question comes in. I have joined two of the smaller cables together to make a long one for doing an afghan. But where I use the little joiner thing to put the two cables together, once they're tight the bends in the cables don't match up so I have this wonky join down there in the middle rather than a nice curved circle. Is that normal and will I just have to get used to it, or am I doing something wrong?? It feels weird because normally, when using a circular needle, the 'bends' in the needle part will face down (I HOPE you know what I'm describing, this is confusing! :thinking: ) to make the cable nice and rounded, but this way with the two cables joined, if I hold it so the cable is more or less circular, one of the bends of the needle part kind of faces upward making it a bit tricky to keep sliding the stitches smoothly.

If anyone has any pointers, that would be great. I can post pics too if that would be more helpful than my description.

knitqueen · 09-04-2005, 12:38 AM

Anyone?

Ingrid · 09-04-2005, 12:46 AM

Kind of quiet tonight, huh!

I don't have these, but I do know that circular needle measurements are from needle point to needle point if that makes any difference. Beyond that, I'm afraid I'm of no use.

Ingrid · 09-04-2005, 01:17 AM

Did you look through the poll on interchangeable sets?

misstialouise · 09-04-2005, 02:48 AM

I got mine on Friday!! :D

I know what you mean... I'm going to have a play around wiht them soon to try and figure it out :D

Aello · 09-04-2005, 08:58 AM

congrats on your boyes.. I

mine

I know just what you are talking about, you could try playing around with where you /start/ to screw the connector on... Now I know I am not making sense... (wish I could take video lol) but thing of it like one of those coffee mugs that had a screw on cap.. depending on where you want the mouthpiece, you would start screwing the cap on from a certian place... Oh someone just shoot me I may be confusing myself! lol

Hope I helped

Ingrid · 09-04-2005, 12:56 PM

I understood what you meant--and I don't even have a set. The coffee cup comparison was great!

knitqueen · 09-04-2005, 08:35 PM

Aello, I knew exactly what you were talking about!

Have you had success with making a better join by doing what you described?? I'm really frustrated and kind of disappointed with that aspect of these needles. I mean, how often are you going to use a 12" cable by itself, especially considering the needle points are a bit too long to use them properly as a 20" needle (with the 12" cable and the needle points), so you almost HAVE to join the cables together for some things and the crooked, stiff join is going to get to me. I hope I figure out something.

What I REALLY wish is that they sold longer cables that don't need to be joined together. I think the longest they sell is 21". :thinking:

eggplant · 09-04-2005, 09:08 PM

Yep, I think you're stuck with the "wonky" joins. But they're not that bad, really, considering how big and floppy a knitting project can become as it grows. Also, you might be surprised at how many stitches you can fit on some of the smaller cables, so you may find that on the longest cable (did you say 21"?) you could fit the whole width of an afghan.

I have found these interchangeable needles with their varying cable lengths to be really handy when making sweaters, because you can turn some of the cables into stitch holders as you knit by switching out the needle tip for an "endcap", binding off, starting a new cable with the previous needle tip, etc. So the joins have their downsides, but also their upsides (as long as you don't focus only on their backsides

).

knitqueen · 09-04-2005, 10:54 PM

I guess my real disappointment in these is that I was hoping I could use them for magic loop knitting, and the cord with the joins just isn't flexible enough for that. Oh well, I already have long circulars in the sizes needed for, say, socks, so I can use those instead and still know that I have every needle size that I need in the Boye set. I won't be able to justify buying more needles now which is a good thing!!!