Addi Turbo Circular Needles
RATING: 5 out of 5 DPNs
Quality: Good
Fabric Damage Factor: Minimal
Working with Vendor (where applicable): N/A
Paid Review: No, but affiliate links may appear in this review
Review Summary: While Addi Turbo circular needles are a more expensive needle than what you might find at your local craft store, they give value for the money spent. They are good if you are working with a “stickier” yarn, such as wool, that doesn’t necessarily slide smoothly over your needles. They don’t warp when knitting at a tight tension or doing fancier needlework, and I was really impressed by the join. The blunt tips are perfect for yarns that split easily.
THE REVIEW
A pleasant knitting experience is directly tied in to the tools we use. And what tool is more fundamental to the craft we practice than our needles? There is a lot to the purchase of needles, and I won’t go into all those factors here. Rather, this review covers specifically the addi Turbo circular needles.
There are a few needle companies that really dominate the market, including KnitPicks, addi, ChiaoGoo and Clover. Addi is a German company, with a very respected place in the market. Having heard so much about them, I was curious to try them myself.
INITIAL REACTIONS: When I first took my addi Turbo needles out of the package, I was surprised by how light they are. They feel lighter to me than a comparable pair of aluminum needles. Additionally, the cable is quite flexible, significantly more so than my Clover bamboo needles. This cable does not wind back on itself as aggressively as the Clovers do, and that flexibility came in handy as I worked on my projects.
THE TESTS: I worked with these needles on a couple of different projects, using different needle sizes and lengths. The first was a 40-stitch swatch with some yarn that was not flowing smoothly over bamboo needles. Switching over to the addi Turbo needles was simple and straight-forward. Once the yarn was on the needles, I found that the yarn moved quickly and smoothly forward on the needles with no hitches. The blunt tip didn’t split any plys, an issue I had experienced when using the bamboo needles with the same yarn.
My next test was a pair of socks I was knitting. For this test, I worked with a Merino wool/nylon yarn base, and I was knitting my socks two-at-a-time. I was really impressed with the cable flexibility. In particular, I wasn’t fighting the cable in order to prevent ladders up the sides of my socks; rather, I was able to use the same tug to tighten the yarn as I would on double-pointed needles. This was a big win for me, as it meant I didn’t have to make that first stitch so tight that it was difficult to get the yarn on to the tip when I shuffled my stitches forward. Additionally, I was unable to warp these needles (size 1s) despite some tight knitting on the project that easily bent and warped similar aluminum needles, and that broke bamboo needles.
I also knitted up a lace shawl using larger needles (size 8s), and found the experience to be consistent with the smaller needle sizes in terms of performance. However, this test really confirmed for me that the addi Turbo needles have a really solid join with the cable. In none of these tests did I have to fight to get the yarn over the join and on to the tip of the needle, and that was knitting at my typical tension.
THE TAKEAWAY: While addi Turbo circular needles are a more expensive needle than what you might find at your local craft store, they are definitely worth the expense if you are working with a “stickier” yarn, such as wool, that doesn’t necessarily slide smoothly over your needles. They don’t warp when knitting at a tight tension or doing fancier needlework, and I was really impressed by the join. The blunt tips are perfect for yarns that split easily.