Knitting Needles

Knitting needles and yarn are the two must-haves for this needlecraft.   You may be over-whelmed the first time you go to pick out your knitting needle.  In this section we hope to help you understand your options before buying.  The knitting needle comes in various sizes and are made up of aluminum, plastic, wood or bamboo.  For large projects or when knitting in the round, you can use circular knitting needles and for project such as gloves, you can use double-pointed needles.  Go ahead and read on, we hope you will be knitting in no time!

Double pointed - These needles are pointed on both ends.

• You can knit from both ends
• Sold in sets of 4 or 5.
• Various lengths but, 7" size is most commonly used in instructions.
• Used for tubular seamless knitting of small areas such as hats, socks, mittens, etc..

Example of double pointed knitting needles:

Circular knitting needles: - Allow you to create tubes much like the double pointed needle except that the circular needles enable you to work on one needle in a continuous circle.

• Used for seamless knitting such as sweater yokes, skirts, neck edges, socks, mittens.
• Have a flexable cord with single pointed needles on each end.
• Can be used when a project is too wide to use a single pointed needle. (i.e. afghan)
• Come in a large variety of lengths.
• Sizes range from 00 to 13.

Example of Circular needle:  

Cable needles: -  Used for holding stitches during a cable movement.

• All cable needles are double pointed.
• Sizes range from (5-9).
• Most common shapes are, straight, straight with bend in middle andU-shaped.
• Allow you to "move" stitches across a knitting piece.

Example of Cable knitting needles:     

International Needle Equivalents      0-5
U.S. System	0	1	2	3	4	5
English & U.K. System	13	12	11	10	9	8
Continental Rim System	2¼	2½	3	3¼	4	4½

International Needle Equivalents            6-10½
U.S. System	6	7	8	9	10	10½
English & U.K. System	7	6	5	4	3	2
Continental Rim System	5	5½	6	6½	7	7½

International Needle Equivalents         11-13-15
U.S. System	11	13	15
English & U.K. System	1	00	000
Continental Rim System	7½	8½	9