Webs Interchangeable Needles Set review

And now for some needle reviews!

This past Spring i splurged on the WEBS Interchangeable Needle Set in bamboo.  I love knitting with bamboo needles, but in the past it's been cost prohibitive to buy yarn for a new project and the corresponding needles to go along with it.  I felt this would be an excellent solution, and it sounded like a great deal when you consider that it's nine needle sizes in numerous length combinations.  I have mixed feelings about my purchase, however.

Pros:  The tips are lovely, smooth, and not too sharp, they feel sturdy, and light.  The cables are a little thicker than i would like, but very flexible considering.  The screws fasten smoothly, and don't exactly lock, rather have a firm stop.  I haven't had any issues with them unscrewing themselves like i did with the Boye metal tips that i used to knit up my Flaming Snowboard Beanie ages ago.

Meh:  The cables come in two different sizes, brass and black (or thin and thick, respectively).  Tips size 4-6 come with brass receivers, while sizes 7-11 come with black ones, which indicates "which diameter of cable should be used."  The brass cables came perfectly set up, but with the black screwed ones required me to ease them a couple of millimeters farther out of the clear cabling in order for the receivers to be able to grip the screws properly.  This was nerve racking for me, i certainly didn't want to mess up my purchase, but once i adjusted them, most have worked fine.  As it turns out, the black receivers can take the brass screws, but then the cable doesn't form a smooth fit with the female end.  The brass screw cables are narrower, so the black receivers need to have a larger diameter to accommodate the thicker cables.

Weak Cons:  Some of the numbers on the tips are already starting to wear off.  One of my size 10 1/2 tips doesn't lock on most of the cables: it just keeps turning.  It's not going to fall off, so i can still use it, but it's annoying.  The size 7 and 8 tips are very snug on some of the cables, so it's trickier getting them locked in:  i think that the 7s would have been better suited to the smaller cables, but they have the black ends.  The case isn't quite as nice as i was expecting (the quality of fabric and sewing being the issue).

I wrote in the needle sizes by hand for quicker extraction.
As you can see, i currently have three projects on needles from this set.

Huge Con:  The real issue is with the 24" black cables:  most of the tips can't even grip the screws, and when one can, the other can't.  I cannot ease the screws farther out of the cables as i did with the rest of them, and trying to use pliars only damaged the screws.  So i have one damaged 24" cable and one 24" cable that i can't use, anyway.  My fingers are sore at the moment from trying to fix this, and i'm sure that i've tried other times in the past and gave up on it.

32" (left) and 24" (right)

The knobs work fine, but are a little smaller than seems rational.  I'm always paranoid about my sts slipping over them (not that they have, it's just a mental thing for me).

The connectors seem to work fine (except on those 24" cables, which is where i wanted to use them, of course), though the brass ones don't connect as smoothly as the tips do.  They haven't snagged anything yet, but i'm extra careful around them.

So overall... i guess i'll give it 4 stars out of 5.  It really annoys me that i cannot use those 24" cables.  I don't know if ordering replacement cables would help.  The kicker is that i didn't test everything out immediately after it arrived, just gradually as i started to use it, so i feel ridiculous about e-mailing or phoning them with a complaint now.  This seems to be the best set currently available online, but there is definitely room for improvement.