After making a few sales on Etsy, I celebrated by buying myself a set of KnitPro interchangeable circular knitting needles. I’d been reading reviews of a few different brands and types and, often preferring wooden needles, KnitPro seemed like a good option to try out (and stop feeling the need to buy a billion circular needles).

Interchangeable circular needles are useful because you can swap the cable length and the needle tips depending on your project. With the Lokki hat I already realised the fun of finishing the rib section, and then switching the needle tips to another size to continue on the next section (rather than wrangling two circular needles to knit from one size to the next).

Yesterday I discovered an unexpected bonus from owning them.

I’ve cast on a popular (free!) Ravelry cardigan called the February Lady Sweater by Pamela Wynne. It’s my first time knitting a large piece from a pattern, I’ve been wanting to try a cardigan or jumper, and if over 13,000 people have given it a whirl then surely I can do it too!

The pattern suggests an 80cm (32″) circular needle and the piece is worked from the top down. All was going well until I wanted to try on the yoke piece and check if it was fitting under my arms before switching to the body of the pattern. My 80cm needle was looking very full!

Staring and pondering whether to put the whole piece on a very long scrap yarn to try on, and then transfer back to the needles, I remembered that my circulars came with a set of metal tube cable connectors.

When I saw the cable connectors mentioned on the packet I had realised they’d be handy if I wanted to construct different length cables to knit on. It hadn’t occurred to me that I could extend my cable temporarily in the middle of a project.

I joined my longest cable to the working cable and placed stitch stoppers on the ends of the cable.

And on this longer cable, my cardigan yoke sat flat enough to try on without bunching or fear of dropping stitches.

Interchangeable needles to the rescue! :) I’m now more than sold on the benefits of owning them.