Very Cool Hand-me-downs

I'm not sure I could find another knitter as new to the business of crafting as I am that has so many needles! During a recent trip home to Vancouver, British Columbia, my mum gave me an entire zipper case full of knitting needles from my grandmother's collection. Apparently when she passed away there were about 4 of these bad boys here:


... and since my mom is more of a crocher'er (huh?) anyway, she had no need for them. There was also a very cute little matching "accessories" organizer too!


So now I think I have every size knitting needle between 2 and 17, with a whole bunch of duplicates! (I think I have 4 sets of size 4 needles. lol)



I think my deficiency going in to the future is going to be circular needles, which seem more complicated with having to take both needles size and length in to consideration. I have the one set of size 7 - 16" metals ones that I'm using for the toque, and one other short, fat plastic set that came with my grandma's stuff.

So my question for you guys, the blogosphere o' knitting, is how much knitting do you do in the round and how much do you knit straight? Is it more like 50/50 or 80/20? I hear some people say that knitting in the round keeps the finishing portion of a sweater to a minimum, which sounds nice, but I can't imagine owning enough of those needles to always have the size/length that you need!