It Finally Happened ....

It finally happened to me today - I broke my first needle! :'(  I've read about others breaking needles by accidentally sitting on it or inadvertently sticking their needles in a funny angle in their couch and breaking it ... but, foolishly, I didn't think it would ever happen to me because in general, I'm very careful with my needles.  Heck, I even bought a needle keeper to protect them!

So, here's what happened:
I'm finally working on the cuff portion of my Rainbow Brite no Kutsunoshita (a post on this project will be forthcoming) and my KA interchangeable needles were showing some wear; in fact my left needle was actually bent (somehow).  I thought I could "fix" it by gently flexing it back to straighten it out and it worked for quite a while ... until today.  As I was gently flexing it back, it simply snapped:

I was so heartbroken!  It was my newest pair of needles from Japan and now, it's just a lifeline! :'(

Well, on the bright side, at least it's still usable (I'm so glad that I had purchased a pair of end caps!) and all I'll need is just another set of needles.  This time though, I'm going to pick up longer needles.  The KA's I had bought were 4 inches long and really wasn't as comfortable as my other needles which are 4.5 inches long (apparently that 1/2 inch really makes a difference!).  So, perhaps this was really a blessing in disguise. :P