I’m going to teach myself how to knit, and I’m confused by the different sizes of needle. Do I need them all, or there one or 2 sizes I’ll use most of the time? What’s the difference in size? How does the difference affect the piece I’m making? Also, what’s the deal with circular knitting needles? Do I need more than one size of those?
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The majority of the times the patterns you will use will be size 6 or 8. If your just learning some will tell you to get larger needles but you may not need them for a long time or possible never so you just wasted your money. As far as the circular needles, don’t buy them until you get a pattern asking for them the same as the large needles. Right now just get a skein of 4 ply yarn and practice on it. When you think your ready for patterns email me and let me know what you want to make and I will try to find a free pattern for you and help you if you have any problems.
When I learned to knit not to long ago I bought a few straight needles. Now I hardly use them as I can use circulars for both back and forth knitting or circular knitting. Had I known then that I would never need my straights because I could use my circs. I wouldnt have spent my money on them. Just FYI
If your just learning to knit I would really push you to buy the larger sizes like 10 11 or 13. Buy some chunky yarn and make a fun scarf. This would make your first piece to be knit very quickly, good practice, and you’ll have an in-style scarf to wear or gift with in a day or two.
Once you go into knitting socks and sweaters and other things then you can worry about purchasing other needle sizes depending on what the pattern calls for.
The different types of sizes make a big difference. Lets say you knit two pieces, one with a size 3 and one with a size 8 with the same weight yarn (weight is the thickness of the yarn). You’ll notice the piece that you made with a size 3 is stiffer and tighter between the stitches. The piece with the size 8 will be a little larger, more flexible, and the stitches will be further apart.
Oh and if you want to start stocking up for cheap go to ebay. I bought a large lot of used knitting needles (about 110 pieces) for about 30 bucks including shipping. I got a bunch of straight needles and Double pointed needles (used for socks and other circular items in lieu of circular needles) and other knitting accessories.
Sorry to babble on but I looove to knit and loove to help new knitters really look forward to enjoying there new hobby!! Have fun and happy knitting!
This depends on what kind of projects you want to knit. I predominantly knit with size 8 and size 10 1/2 needles, others tend to stick with 3s and 5s. The larger the needle size, the larger the loop you produce in your knitting. If you use a large needle and a thin yarn, this will create a very open look, and conversely using a small needle with a thick yarn will produce a tighter knit. Yarn labels will state their recommended needle size.
I would suggest that you take some time to look through beginner knitting projects to see which patterns appeal to you and then use the average needle size (or two) from those. Do note, that you do not have to use the exact size the pattern says you should…going up or down a size is all to taste (and if you have a tight tension–which beginners tend to–then you may want to go up a size then as well).
There’s two real reasons to use circular needles. One being that you are knitting in the round (such as with hats, socks, or sleeves) and the other reason would be because your project is too large to fit on straight needles (blankets are usually knit on circular needles). If you are not attempting a blanket, then I would recommend you stick with straight needles for the time being.
Ultimately, as a beginner, you can get away with buying one or two sets of straight needles. Over time, your needle collection will grow. If you can, I would borrow needles from others before purchasing just so you can try out the different materials. Needles are available in plastic, wood, and metal and there are pros and cons to each of those. Metal helps your speed, but can be very slippery so you may drop stitches with them. Plastic, or acrylic, needles tend to produce a lot of friction and are ‘stickier’. It’s a bit like being Goldilocks, you will find your porridge though.
Good luck!
I’ve been knitting for more than 30 years and hardly ever use straight needles anymore, even though I have tons of them, some are antiques that were given to me by others who know I knit.
Different sized needles affect the gauge and drape of what you are knitting. If you are using a fine yarn (often called lace or fingering yarn) you would probably want to use a smaller sized needles such as 3 or 4 but for most beginners size 8 – 10 are the best to work with. If you want to start with a chunky or jiffy yarn go with an even larger needle 10 – 13. There are even size 15 needles but they are harder to hold if you aren’t used to them.
There are kits you can buy that have a pair of bamboo needles and enough worsted weight yarn to complete your first project.
There are also some good web sites that have step by step videos of all the different techniques you may want to learn. My favorite is http://www.knittinghelp.com. Youtube also has videos
I also like lionbrand.com for it’s videos, free pattern library and selection of affordable yarns.
Purchase as needed and you will need three; the size recommended for the pattern and one smaller and one larger. Your personal touch may very well differ from the designers.
Do not go any farther with purchases until you are sure this is a craft you want to continue with.
Different weights of yarn will require different sizes of knitting needles. The most common size to learn with is worsted weight yarn and size 8 needles.
Like many of the others here, I have an entire large box of straight needles but only use my circulars with the addition of double pointed needles for socks and such.
The larger the number of the needle, the larger the stitch. Same for smaller. You can even get an entire “system” of circular needles that comes with all the different sizes of points that screw into different lengths of cables and the cables can even be joined to make even longer needles. I have two of these entire sets, one in aluminum and one in nylon.
There are many advantages of using circular needles for knitting flat. No dropping a needle when turning, easier to have a large number of stitches on the needle without having one side really heavy as the work progresses, not having those long needles sticking out when knitting in public (in a waiting room, on a bus, train, or plane), easier to slide your work to the center when putting it up, easier on your hands in the long run.
Circular needles do cost about twice what straight ones cost but I think that you will agree that the price is worth it.
If i use a size 4 needle instead of a size 3 will it make much difference?
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