Choosing Knitting Needles

Choosing knitting needles at the start of knitting an item and for most knitting is an essential piece of equipment. Knitting can also be done using only the fingers and hands.

The knitting needles come in lots of different sizes and when you choose a pattern. The pattern will then state what size of needle or sizes of needles to use.

Most knitting patterns will used more than one size for a cardigan or jumper. A smaller needle is usually used for the rib stitch at the bottom of a garment such as a jumper, cardigan or sleeve. Then a larger needle approx two sizes larger will be used for the main body of the work.

The pattern will also give any of abbreviations that has been used for that particular item.

The pattern will also give a tension guide which will inform you how many stitches and rows should be in a certain sized square.

Many people when they first learn how to cast on knitting tend to knit very tight and as confidence grows the knitting technique will relax.

Some are too much the other way and have extremely loose knits.

Changing the needle size will help to rectify this if you knit tightly then pick larger needles and choose smaller ones if the knit is loose until you reach the right tension.

Differences in Knitting Needles

Regular Knitting Needles

Regular knitting needles have a block at one end that usually indicates the size of that pair of  knitting needles and also help keep the stitches on the needle.

At the opposite end the needle is pointed, this point helps to knit by making it easier to pick up the stitches. The point is tapered and loops into the stitches easier than if it was blunt and not tapered.

These come in all sizes and lengths. They can also be made from metal, bamboo or plastic.

Double pointed Knitting needles

Some knitting stitches use very small double pointed needle such as in cable stitches. These much smaller needles will hold one or two stitches either behind or in front of the work so the different patterns can be achieved.

The double pointed needles have a point at both ends so care should be taken that the stitches don't fall off the end. These can sometimes be shorter than regular needles.

Double pointed needles are also used when making tubular items such as hats, socks or necklines like polo neck and can be bought a set of four. These also come in different sizes so the knitting stays true to the pattern.

These can also be used when making different knitted shapes such as a hexagon.

Circular needles 

Knitting with circular needles is similar to double pointed needle as there are points at both ends but in between these there is a thin long flexible plastic tube that fixes on the ends on the needle points so larger items can be made.

These would be used when knitting a much larger item like a sweater. These can be used in a couple of ways, one way is where they are used like regular needles doing straight knitting.

I have made a few sweaters where there are two colours and one row uses one colour on every few stitches and skipping some stitches then the row is taken back to the beginning ready to do the next row using a different colour knitting the previous skipped stitches and skipping those that were knitted on the previous row. It sounds complicated but the picture shows the result.

The other way of using circular knitting needles is knitting in the round so there is no seam to sew up at the end.

The needles come in different sizes to keep the pattern true but they also come in different lengths of the tube between the points.

The correct length is necessary when making items or the item will be stretched. When making a hat and as the stitches are decreased the knitting can still get a bit tight towards the end but it is manageable.

Common Sizes For Knitting Needles

Other Useful Needle Sizes

Nowadays needles are made out of bamboo, plastic or metal but in years gone by bit of twig , bone or animal horn was used.

Needle length can also vary so make sure you have the right length for the item you are making without bunching the stitches up too much or making them fall off.

Different knitting techniques will suggest the length of the needle as some knitters tuck the needle under their arm so would need a longer length. 

There are many shopping outlets that supply all you need for knitting from  on line craft sites to the independent wool shops.