Knitting needle tips

 I have been moving toward blunter/flatter knitting needle/ knitting pins/knitting pricks for several years now. For a long while, I thought flat tips were better for knitting and domed or rounded tips were better for ribbing.

Today, I recognize that as a lack of skill.  Now, I like flat tips for knitting and purling. I like flat tips for ribbing. With skill from real practice, they are faster.  Perhaps, if I sit down and practice, I will be able to knit bobbles with flat tipped needles. (There might be 10 cakes of real 10-ply Aran yarn, in the stash.) However, from here I think pointy needles/ knitting pouch is a better toolkit for panels of brioche stitch.

Flat tipped (needles) do not  work well as hand held needles - they really do need a knitting sheath.  

And, knitting  sheaths work better with flat ended needles/pins/pricks. 

If  I need pointy needles for a substantial bit of knitting,  I likely use a knitting pouch. If it is just a few stitches, I will use them in a knitting sheath, or just hand hold them.

If you are going to FINISH a good stream of  fine socks (30,000 stitches per sock) per year, a knitting sheath and flat tipped needles are the easy path.