Knitpicks needles fix

Knitpicks makes some nice knitting needles. The company started up right around the time that I learned to knit, which was great timing for me. They make good, inexpensive stuff and, as a new knitter, I didn’t want to spend lots of cash on a craft I wasn’t sure that I was going to like. As my skills have advanced, I’ve come to appreciate the pointy tips and the fact that the metal coating doesn’t react with my hands. (All of my expensive Addi lace needles react with my skin and give off a strong metallic odor.)

The one problem with Knitpicks needles is that the cables tend to come loose at the join. This is a very common problem – at least half of my Knitpicks cable needles suffer from it. I found a good fix for it and thought that I should share. This fix is best used as a preventative measure, because sometimes when the cable pops out of the housing, it won’t go back in all the way, and then you’re left with a needle that snags the yarn. Knitpicks has an excellent reputation for replacing needles that fail this way, but I really prefer to buy my tools once and not have to replace them at all. Who wants to put a project down for a week while waiting for new needles to come in the mail?

crimping the cable housing

You can see the crimp line at the base of the cable housing.

My fix is that I crimp the end of the housing ever so slightly, using a pair of needle-nose pliers. I use just enough pressure to make a mark. After the end is crimped, the cable never moves. I treated some of my needles like this 3 years ago, and have had no problems with them since then, so this is a good long-term fix.

It’s important to not crimp the end too aggressively. Too much pressure will make the end of the housing flare out, so that it snags the yarn. (I did crimp one needle too aggressively and had to throw it out, because the end flared into a sharp spot that was snagging my delicate lace yarns.)