Knitting Karma Loves Me: A Product Review

I have good news to share, and with it, a product review*. Knitting karma graced me with its presence once again! I recently won a free set of Addi Clicks, just by luck of the draw. When Skacel notified me that I’d won, I almost didn’t believe it. It started to seem real when I saw my name on the next Skacel email newsletter. It really seemed real when I got them in the mail!

If you’re not familiar with Addi needles, here’s the basic rundown. Their fixed circulars come in several styles, some of which have different labeling in different areas of the world. The standard is the Turbo, which is lightning fast due to the coated nickel finish. Turbo tips have a more or less typical taper and are slightly rounded. Then, there’s Addi Turbo Lace circs. These are made of brass, which is a little grippier than the nickel, and have a more tapered tip with a sharper point. Addi Rockets, or Sock Rockets, combine the best of the first two styles (in my humble opinion) as they have the long, sharp tip paired with the slick coated nickel. These have been my go-to circulars for a while now. They’re super speedy, the join is smooth, the cables are flexible and don’t kink easily. That makes them good for magic loop, lace, large projects, and just about anything and everything else. Addi also makes bamboo circs and maybe others, but I haven’t tried any of them.

Addi also makes interchangeable circular needle sets called Clicks. The different styles available mostly coincide with the fixed circ styles, with one exception. The lace tip Clicks are coated nickel, not grippy brass. So, they’re really more like the Rockets. Lace tips come in short and long lengths. Since Rockets are my favorites, and since I have big hands and despise short needles, I opted for the Long Lace Tip Clicks.

As you can see, they come in a sleek pink case. Inside, there’s eight sets of tips in US sizes 4-11, a cable connector and an Addi heart pin.

The US4s aren’t pictured as they’re in use!

The connector can be used to link two cables together to get a really long one. Or, you can take the tips off a WIP and hook both ends of the cable to the connector and use it like a stitch holder. That would be handy if you needed those tips for another project or another part of the same WIP.

On the back of the case, there’s a zipper pocket that holds three cables and a needle gauge.

Again, one cable is not pictured as it’s in use.

I put them to work right away on my Miller’s Daughter shawl. Initially, they took a little getting used to. There’s a spring loaded mechanism that connects the tip to the cable and apparently sometimes they need to be broken in a little. At first, I couldn’t get one of the US4 tips to lock securely in place, and it popped off a couple of times while I was knitting. I ended up fiddling with it for a while, mostly just connecting and disconnecting it, until I was able to get the lock to fully engage. After that, it was smooth sailing!

This set has a really cool lifeline feature. Each cable has a sort of slot near each end that you can thread a lifeline through. It’s kind of like the eye of a needle except that it closes up when you’re not actively manipulating it. You just put the end of the lifeline through the slot, then knit the next row. As the knitting slides off the working needle onto the cable, the lifeline is pulled through all the stitches. After finishing that row, slide all the stitches onto the cable to ensure they’re all captured, then remove the end of the lifeline from the slot. Easy peasy! It came in handy to have this feature as the Miller’s Daughter has several lace panels of increasing widths, so lifelines are something of a necessity.

My one quibble with the Clicks is that the join isn’t as smooth as it is on Addi’s fixed circs. I tend to be a snug knitter, so it can be a little trying when sliding stitches off the cable and onto the needle to be worked. It gets easier after a bit, but I imagine a very tight knitter would have trouble.

The tips are great. They’re super long and pointy, which I like. I find that makes it easier to work stitches more quickly and accurately. I love them!

Overall, I’m very happy with my new toys! They’re great for shawl knitting and larger projects, especially. Since I chose the long tips, they won’t work well with smaller diameter projects like hats or baby dresses, but that doesn’t bother me. I’m not getting rid of any of my fixed Addis anytime soon, so I should always have the right tools for any job. I think that, eventually, I will purchase more tips in smaller sizes so I can do magic loop socks and the like.

Many, many thanks to Skacel for their generous giveaway! I expect to get many years of use out of this set. They’re serving me well already!

Happy, speedy knitting!

*Disclaimer: Nothing to disclose! I received the Clicks free with no expectation of any review, favorable or otherwise.