Knitting Needles - Your Easy Guide To All Things Pointy!

Knitting Needles are one of the 2 pieces of equipment you can't knit without (the other being yarn!) For years I worked using a metal set that I inherited from my grandmother and they suited me fine. You can buy them in many craft and yarn stores and they tend to be some of the most cost effective around. Buying a starter set in a range of sizes can be a great starting point to your new hobby if you've never knitted before.

However, if you want to splash out a little bit more, consider moving to another kind - try woods like bamboo, rosewood or even ebony. These wooden sticks not only look attractive but are warm to the touch and gives a nice level of grip to the yarn, making your stitches less likely to slip off and helps to keep your tension even.

Because wood is a natural product so works especially well with natural yarns like wool, cotton and silk.

Another material that is often used is glass. This tend to be heavier in your hands than wood or metal so may suit you if you prefer more weight. They are also incredibly smooth - so grip a lot less than wood and therefore making your stitches glide much more smoothly. They also come in a fabulously pretty range or colors and styles.

Shapes and Point Styles

You may have noticed a variety of different shaped needles in your local yarn store and wondered what they are for. There are 4 main shapes when it comes to knitting needles

Circular Needles

Circular needles are used to create seamless shapes and are particularly useful for working with large and bulky items like afghans and blankets. This is because they have a longer length than straight needles.

Circular needles consist of two shorter straight needles connected in the middle by a longer, flexible length of wire or cord. They come in the same range of sizes as straight needles and are used in exactly the same way - once you get to the end of a row, simple swap hands and work from the other end.

Some knitters use these for all of their projects. Give them a go and you may find that you prefer them to straight needles too. Other knitters, myself included, use them for specific projects such as yoked collars and larger items only. Why not give them a go and find out which style you prefer.

Double Pointed Needles

Double pointed knitting needles come in sets of 4 or 5 and are really useful for creating seamless tubes of work. For this reason, they are often used to make socks and gloves.

Cable Knitting Needles

Cable needles are used to help create texture in your work by carrying stitches across your work to create a 3 dimensional rope effect on your work. Cable needles are usually shorted than traditional straight needles and can be curved, U shaped or straight.

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