Update Part 1/Introduction
The folks at Knitting Fever kindly sent me a few Lykke needles to review. Lykke's moniker borrows from Norwegian, and means "happiness". It's an apt name.
The Lykke Flight needles are made of aluminum. They do not contain nickel. The Driftwood needles are birch. They arrived in contrasted packaging: the black Flight needles against a light tan background, the grayish Driftwood against a black background. Aren't the packaging/design elements great? As shown in the picture above, I have two 10" straight needles (both US 7), one short Driftwood circular (US 5) and one 24" Flight circular (US 6). The straight needles reveal another spot of contrast, as the Flight have bright silver ends while the Driftwood have black ends. Each needle has its size printed on it, on the side of the circular needles and at the head of the straights.
Can you see the sizes on the circ's?They look and feel very well made. The Driftwood 10" straights are very light. The 10" Flights were surprisingly heavy, and I would describe them as having a good heft without feeling heavy while knitting. For comparison, they feel heavier than my Knitter's pride 10" US 3 needles and lighter than the corresponding US 10 needles.
The tips are slightly shorter, and I think slightly blunter, than my beloved Chiaogoos. They are barely shorter than the Knitter's Pride needles, and slightly longer and pointier than my Clover/Takumi needles.
Left to right: US 5, US 6, US 7; A = Addi, Cl = Clover, Ch = Chiaogoo, KP = Knitter's Pride, L = Lykke
For some inexplicable reason, I started my Lykke trial with the yarn I hate most: dishcloth cotton. The aluminum Flight work perfectly for dishcloth cotton, and I have a new favorite cotton needle. They slide so easily that I found myself knitting faster without feeling that tight tension that I usually have to fight when using Chiaogoo for the same task. The Driftwood felt like knitting dishcloth cotton with wooden needles, i.e., awful, so I switched back to the Flight to finish the cloth.
I was a little concerned that the tips might not be quite pointy enough for lace, so I grabbed my herringbone swatch and slipped the Driftwood US 5 into my stitches. The yarn is a fingering weight 75% merino/25% nylon from Western Sky Knits. The Lykke knit my K2TBL and P2T stitches smoothly, and the tip slipped into the pairs of stitches ever so sweetly. I'm not going to be convinced that these are perfect for all lace until I try them, but that smooth glide has me wondering whether I will like these more than my pairs of Knitters Pride.
For the last batch of tests, I dug into my stash for a ball of worsted Brown Sheep Nature Spun yarn. The mothproofing makes the yarn feel a little tackier than most of my other wools, especially the slick superwash, and I wanted to see what it would do on the needles. I was happy with the Flight US 6 circulars. Again, they knit easily and steadily without dropping or splitting stitches. I intentionally cast on enough stitches to force the yarn to glide over the join, and that too is smooth. Finally, because I do like wool on wood, I transferred the swatch to the Driftwood #7. The Driftwood was perfect with the wool.
Importantly, the joins and cable are excellent. The cable doesn't seem to want to twist, bend, shimmy or tangle. It just is. The join doesn't snag or drag. For comparison, the cables are not as loose or flexible as Addi cables but not nearly as stiff as the Chiaogoo. I think they are a little firmer than Knitter's Pride cables, and probably most comparable to the Knitter's Pride cables.
It's hard to see the join - black on black - but it is smooth!
The cable keeps its own gentle loop. I didn't sit on it to straighten it (yet).
If there is a downside to these needles, it's probably the slightly blunter tips in the context of knitting complex lace. Ok, and the availability. Hopefully that will improve once both sets have started shipping.
Overall, I think these are really solid contenders for favorite needles. I may not be emotionally ready to admit that anything could beat Chiaogoos (except on dishcloth cotton!), but the Flight deserves to compete. I would be happy to recommend them to either a beginner or an experienced knitter. I am hoping to buy an interchangeable set of the Flight (sizes 2-15, pricing seems to run $99-109), and was disappointed to hear that they won't be shipping till after the holidays. My LYS does have a full set of the interchangeable Driftwood (pricing closer to $125-130, I think), so one of my knitting friends was happily knitting along with her new Driftwood needle last knit night. The circular cables are excellent, and the interchangeable joins are very smooth. In fact, as much as I enjoyed knitting with these, I think the cables and joins are the most dramatic technical advantage of these needles. They don't drag. They don't catch. They knit, smoothly and quickly. I Lykke them.
