I’ve officially become enamored with a new-to-me knitting tool: Knitter’s Pride Karbonz needles. These needles are made from carbon fiber and have slick nickel-plated brass tips.

Oooooh, shiny.

As you may have noticed over the last few months, I’ve been slowly transitioning from the colorful Knit Picks Harmony needles I’ve used almost exclusively for the last few years to sleek, black KP Karbonz needles. It began when I realized I was mending far too many holes in my socks and needed to tighten my gauge. However, I wanted to knit with size 0 (2.0 mm) DPNs that didn’t feel like bendable, careful-or-they’ll-snap-in-half toothpicks. So I ordered some Karbonz DPNs and loved them.

Current sock in progress. Click for project page.

And I thought — maybe the Harmony’s are NOT the be-all-end-all of knitting needles. I first learned to knit on Susan Bates metal needles but have been fiercely anti-metal since…

1. Start with a dramatic title which is only tangentially related to the post.

2. Explain that you haven’t been able to blog, not because you’re not knitting, but because you have no way of taking pictures in cold, grey weather while staying as a guest at someone else’s place, and a blog post without pictures is deemed an abomination.

3. Promise that knitting has been happening, prove it by pointing readers towards the Ravelry project pages which have been updated.

4. Tantalize readers with promises of a new and inspired creation, a self-designed pattern which is just perfect.

5. Talk rapturously about its colours, coming up with ever-so-many synonyms for red: scarlet, brick, burnt, deep, blood and boticelli.

6. Share a secret-sisterhood-smirk with readers who use Malabrigo yarn and therefore know precisely what you mean by the last synonym.

7. Throw in a yarn photo for those who don’t.

8…