What are 4" dpns good for?

[haapai]

Will I ever get used to them? 

I was a bit confused and desperate when I ordered them.  I'm a fan of addi aluminum turbo dpns and there's really no way to get them except by mail.  I was aiming for something an inch shorter than what I had but got something two inches shorter.  Now I have five sets of expensive aluminum toothpicks. 

Should I stick with them, attempt to return them, or re-home them? 

[haapai]

FWIW, I'm mostly a sock knitter and I wanted shorter needles that would fit more easily into my pockets.  I've never given gloves or mittens a shot.  Is that what these things were designed for? 

My other guess as to why these things exist is that they may be handy when doing cable stitches, especially if you bend them severely. 

Anyone else have any clues as to why these things exist? 

[teen persuasion]

I'd have to guess they're for gloves, for the fingers. I'd be dropping stitches off 4" needles left and right. They'd feel too short to handle, too. I really have a problem with the short metal tips on circular needles, bc they just feel too short. I like the idea of them (circulars) for socks, but can't work so small.

I've seen a new trick where you use a pair of larger circular needles for socks, half the stitches on each one. I think the idea is you use a long circular needle, and work the stitches on that one with its two ends (off one end, back onto the other end, if you kwim), and then work the other half of the round on its circular needle - instead of treating the pair as two dpn (off one needle, onto the next).

I haven't tried it yet, but the flexible circulars should wind up in a pocket better than dpns.

I have some cable needles, and, yeah, they are essentially 4" bent dpns. I rarely use them, mostly I can get by w/o any extra needle at all.