HiyaHiya Flyers Double-Pointed Flexible Knitting Needles (US 3/3.25mm)

I have been 'watching' these needles for a couple of years. I happily and easily knitted boot socks on DPs several years ago but now my hands are 80 years old and more stiff than before. I looked at magic loop and decided the fiddle factor did not go away after the fourth row of the cuff. Two circulars had cords waving every which way and 9" circulars weren't helpful with the stiff fingers. My Hiya Hiya Flyers came late last night. I cast on early this morning. After a false start (I overlooked an extra stitch), the fiddly went away after the third row and I am happily whizzing along. You knit with the third needle instead of the fourth or fifth. It is difficult to lose stitches off the end of the slightly bent needles. The sharp points make it easy to knit the tight little stitches we use to make good sock fabric. I think I will go outside in the sunshine and do a happy dance. Good tools make any job easier. Treat yourself, you are worth it.I loved my size twos so much I bought the 1.5 in bamboo. Pink mentioned that they were not as sharp. They ARE not as sharp and after you use them for a while they are just as fast as the metal ones. When you use bamboo you have to break them in. The oil on your hands and in the wool lubricates them and the 000000 grade 'sanding' delivered by the wool sliding over them finishes the job. I always enjoy wool yarn on bamboo. It gives me a tiny peek into the world of my ancestors--knitting with all natural materials.

I have used addi flexi flips for sock knitting and didn't like the different needle tips. The hiya hiya flyers have the same sharp tips on both sides, which I much prefer.

I purchased these needles while working on a pair of Fair Isle fingerless mitts with a fairly complex pattern. Double points were giving me a lot of trouble with my floats between needles, so I decide to try those fancy new "flexible" knitting needles. They revolutionized my knitting!! After a short initial adjustment period, my mittens started flying off the needles, with no more ladders, and no fiddling with double-points. I tried the Addi needles first, but I'm not a real Addi fan, and found that I only like the side with the "pointier" needle tip. That's why I bought the HiyaHiya's; they have a reputation for sharp points, and these did not disappoint. The only small problem I had (which was entirely my knitting style) was that I tend to push the tips of the needles with my fingers when I knit, and these puppies are SHARP. After a while, I had to force myself to stop pushing the needle tips, because my fingers were getting sore. But I like sharp tips; to me they just make the knitting easier, especially when dealing with finer yarns, or complex stitches.Some people find it difficult to adjust to this needle style. Fair enough, but if you are not a double-point fan, these are definitely worth a try.

If you've ever felt like a bad puppeteer while wrangling 4 double pointed straight needles to knit socks, I urge you to switch over to these flexible DPNs immediately! They are a dream to knit with, and there's the bonus of the quality Hiya Hiya tips. You can divide your knitting evenly on 2 needles and knit with the third. Much less chance of dropping stitches because you can slide the non-working stitches to the flexible part in the middle. You know you want these... treat yourself!

Quite possibly better than my Addi flexiflips. Love knitting socks, cuffs, mittens with them.

My only suggestion to Hiya Hiya is to make the needle portion of these just a little bit longer. A lot of us female knitters have larger hands and these are too short and uncomfortable. If the tips were longer I could easily use them for a whole project. Right now I’m only using them to start toe up socks. All of the knitters in my local group agree these would be game changing if the tips were longer! So many of us have broken the cords off completely because the tips are so short and the strain gets put on the join where the cable meets the tip.

I could not use these for my sock - I ended up transferring stitches over to my size 2 DPNs (HiyaHiya Sharps) instead. I realized shortly after casting on that for my big hands, I depend on the 6 inch DPN needle's length (resting against the far side of my hand) to support the tip's alignment so my index & thumb can point; with these I found myself having to squeeze much harder on the index & thumb to stabilize the needle and it was aching my hand very badly. Oh well live & learn!

I have these in sock size and was happy to see i could get them in larger sizes. I got the size 6 so that I can make fingerless gloves. I will be ordering more of this line and brand in the near future.