ChiaoGoo Love
When working with luxury yarns it is only right to have tools that are as well crafted and considered as your knits. Made with precision from high quality materials, we love the beautiful range from Chiaogoo.
A family business now based in the USA, Chiaogoo began in China when a skilled bamboo craftsman started making bespoke knitting needles for his wife. A generation later, their son took the manufacturing skills he had gained from his PhD in engineering to expand the company’s products and range of materials to the selection they provide today. The name Chiaogoo (pronounced chau-gu) actually translates from its Chinese origins to mean ‘highly skillful and crafty lady’.
A new product for this year are the Chiaogoo double pointed needle sets. Available in either bamboo or stainless steel, both have the high quality finish and finely tapered points that you would expect from ChiaoGoo needles.
The five sizes in each set, ranging from 2.25mm up to 3.25mm, are just the thing for sock knitters. If bamboo is your material of choice this set have a natural dark patina which, as well as being beautiful, is smooth and warm to the touch. The other option is the high grade stainless steel set which many knitters love for their perfectly tapered tips.
The double pointed needles are housed in a compact fabric case, handy for those knitting on the go and who like to have different sized needles on hand. Each case comes with a zipped pocket containing additional haberdashery goodies like a needle gauge and pretty plastic stitch markers.
A tried and tested favourite of ours are the ChiaoGoo fixed circulars. Like the stainless steel double points, we love them for their fine points which make lace knitting a breeze and the lightweight and sleek nature of steel allows for fluid knitting. The needle is fixed to the cable with a smooth join so no chance of nasty snags or anything catching on your knitting. The cable is also slightly weighted which means a cord that does not kink, but one that is still flexible enough to allow smooth transitions when using the magic loop technique.
As with all ChiaoGoo products, each needle has the size lasered on, ensuring that these crucial measurements will not rub off over time.
Once you have been captivated by the smooth and speedy charms of the ChiaoGoo circulars, you might find yourself tempted by the interchangeable sets. Either in a small (2.75mm – 5mm) or complete set (2.75mm – 10mm) these are the ultimate knitter’s companion, ensuring you really are never without the correct size of needle. For those of you with multiple projects on the go (okay, that will mean many of us!) we also sell the tips and cables (for small or large tips) separately, thus ensuring that you can have a second spare pair or an extra cable to hand.
As well as the stitch markers and needle gauges that are featured in the double pointed needle pack, the interchangeable sets have a couple of handy gadgets. A simple screw mechanism allows you to join cables and create a longer length, plus the ‘stopper’ pictured above that can be swapped with needles to allow stitches to be held on the cable for picking up later – such a great idea!
ChiaoGoo also cater for crocheters with their hooks with metal tips and bamboo handles shaped to fit your hand. A range of sizes means we also have extra fine hooks which can be used for beading.
To go with these lovely needles we have some new haberdashery additions. These little silver plate stitchmarkers catch the light making them easy to see on your needles.
We also have this amazing knitting needle and crochet hook gauge. We think it is one of the first crochet gauges we have come across, so we knew we had to have it! It is so easy to check needle sizes – if the hole on the gauge ‘slides on’ to a needle and the adjacent smaller notch does not, then the latter is the correct size. Crochet hook sizes can also be determined by checking the widest point of the hook.
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Well done to the winners of last weeks Instagram competition – sultanmudschi and fa1ry_elephant! We will be in touch via Instagram to let you know how you can claim your prize.
So enjoy your beautiful needles and haberdashery – Happy Knitting and crocheting to all you crafty ladies (and lads!)
I love my interchangeable set and I am saving my pennies to buy the dpn set.
Now knowing that Chiaogoo means ‘highly skilled crafty lady’ has completely put me off trying these products, because I’m a highly skilled crafty MAN!
Fed up with sexism in the Yarn Arts, I have retreated into my own little creative world, leaving all the magazines etc behind, which seem to continually indicate that it’s only a woman’s yarn crafty world, and gone it alone!
And please make interchangeable needle lengths slightly longer to suit a man’s larger hand, too! I’m sure you’ll agree that there are times when 4-5 inches just ain’t long enough …
Hi Colin,
Couldn’t agree more – there is still a gender bias towards crafts within our society, which is why we made sure at the end of our post to wish all you crafty lads happy knitting and crocheting too! We want to be a space that encourages knitters and crocheters of all sexes, ages and abilities and for everyone to be able to enjoy this together.
We are sorry that you feel there was a bias – we have had posts in the past that have focused on mens knitting patterns that we stock , but we will take your comments on board.
Kind regards,
Loop