Needle Review: Brittany

Sunday 22^nd June 2014

Brittany needles are made of birch.  The properties of wooden needles are well documented – the ‘soft’ handle, the lack of heat conductivity and so on, all make them ideal for people who have sensitive or sore hands. I first started buying Brittany needles many years ago, when it was not so easy to get them in the UK as it is now.  I did buy some from a few UK sites, but I also imported some from the USA.  I like single point needles for small projects which many of my preferred knits are.  I also prefer to knit in the round with DPNs and I have many sets of Brittany DPNs.  Once, when he was a puppy, Rupert ate 3 of a set of 5, having first carefully removed the sock I was knitting, without dropping a single stitch…Brittany will replace broken needles – but I felt I couldn’t claim that was accidental damage so I just bought another set! So, I have many pairs/sets.  The ends are turned and they are attractive – though many years ago, the ends of the knitting needles were more elaborate, as the Brittany crochet hooks still are. I have them, in a stone jar, in my office.  Sadly, these days I seldom knit with them.  Gradually, I have moved away from Brittanys as my first choice, and I think this is because of two factors:  they are too blunt for me (the single points that is, the DPNs in small sizes are OK). The tips are really rounded, which is OK for big yarns with simple stitches, but not ideal for lace and fine yarns. And second, they splinter at the tips.  This is probably due to my knitting style and may not ever be an issue for you, but I have a firm, even ‘clashy’ knitting style.  These wooden needles, despite being hard wood, sometimes develop tiny ‘rough’ areas at the tip, which I cannot smooth away, and which are intensely irritating especially when knitting with Kidsilk Haze. There are just so many more needle options since I first began collecting Brittany, and for me, as someone who knits fine yarns a lot and often lace, there are others that I now prefer.  But, that said, Brittany needles are lovely, simple crafted tools and sometimes, for old time’s sake, I will grab a pair and knit with them.  They do feel lovely in the hand.  In fact, Lily is currently knitting a scarf with some of mine, ideal because they are the short length, and it’s a narrow item, they are light – good because she is a very inexperienced knitter whose hands will tire easily until she picks up knitting stamina (yes, it is a thing), and the yarn is aran weight, so the blunt tips don’t matter. Best bits:

• easy to get hold of in the UK in local yarn shops or on-line
• attractive
• light and warm
• traditional – I like that
• good customer service: Brittany will replace accidentally broken/snapped needles such as one of your set of DPNs
• length options are good

Not so good:

• for me, the tips are too blunt and quite easy to splinter.  Once this happens, I find I cannot repair the roughness.  This is the No 1 reason why I no longer use them much
• size options in single points limited at the small end of the range, where I mainly live
• the size, which is sort of stamped into the needle and then stained, is often really hard to make out

Overall:  6/10, mainly because of the love I had for them all those years ago.