One important point is that you won’t remove knitting needles from a project that’s in the works. Sometimes crocheters take a hook out of one project to use it on another. But with knitting that can easily lead to the first project falling apart. Therefore, if you are going to have different WIPs going at the same time, you’ll need different needles in each of them. With interchangeables, you might have the needle part you need in an existing project so you can’t use it for another. If that sounds like you, then you’ll either need multiple sets of interchangeable knitting needles or you might want to try sets of circular knitting needles so you can use different sizes in different projects.

I feel it’s important that beginners experience a feeling of success– otherwise you’ll get frustrated or bored very soon. And that’s not good, eh? Last, but certainly not least, you need to decide on a type of needle. Knitting needles come in quite a lot of different shapes. Today I’m pausing this project to consider the joys of working with chunky, bulky, and super bulky yarn. If knitting with big yarn and big needles isn’t something you usually do, I’d like to push you out of your comfort zone, and into the super cushy zone. In terms of where this is located on the knitting needle, it’s pretty obvious. So why does it matter? Because you can have tips in varying degrees of sharpness. There are very sharp points and much duller points. Neither is better than the other overall but what you want can vary significantly depending upon your knitting style, the pattern, and the yarn that you’re working with. Therefore, as a beginning knitter, you’ll want to explore needles with different tip sharpness to figure out how they each work for you. Needle Shaft

If you’re a crocheter then you know that crochet hooks are measured in sizes. As described above, a worsted weight yarn pattern might call for a size I-9 (5.5 mm) crochet hook. Often, that number is written / etched right on to the crochet hook. So you can look at the hook and see what size it is.

Interchangeable knitting needles are a specific type of circular knitting needles. With regular circular needles, you’ll buy a bunch of different sized needles as well as different sized cables. An interchangeable knitting needle set allows you to detach the cable from the rest of the needle so that you can mix-and-match your sizes. Beginner knitters would serve themselves well to get a set of interchangeable knitting needles.The term chunky or bulky is used to describe a #5 size yarn. It’s about the size of two strands of light worsted weight (#3) held together. Using the recommended needle size US 9 -11 [5.5-8mm] – it has a gauge of 12 to 15 stitches to knit 4”. Super Bulky A handy little guide to knitting needle sizes including size chart for US, European, and Japanese needles.

The best knitting needle for beginners are single-pointed needles made from bamboo with a length of around 9 inches. The knob on the far end and the medium friction of the wood prevents the work from sliding off too easily. They are both very light and warm, making them very easy to work with. On top of that, they are often among the cheapest option. Of course, new materials (like celluloid) might also explain the departure from the SWG (as they required different machines and thus resulted in different sized needles). One also has to keep in mind that around 1910, commercial flights across the Atlantic were not available, and neither were telephone calls possible. Unlike today, knitters around the world were much less connected internationally and the world moved much slower and still a bit in isolation.On the negative side, wood can break rather easily (especially the small-sized needles) and if you are not careful you can also damage them creating unwanted splinters. If you’re a crocheter then you know that a crochet hook has a shaft. It’s the part of the hook that is flat instead of round. On knitting needles, there’s a tapered part and then there’s the shaft which is not tapered. You don’t want your stitches to fall off of the knitting needles. Therefore, they need to sit up on the shaft of the needle. Cable Are you ready to start knitting? If so then the first thing you need to figure out is what kind of supplies you’ll need to get started. Obviously, you’ll need knitting needles. Pretty soon, choosing your needles for a project will be second nature. But as you get started, it can feel a little daunting. This guide tells you all there is to know about different types of knitting needles. After all, the more knowledge you have, the easier it will be to make decisions about your supple needs. The yarn label of the most commercially produced yarns should provide you with a size range. It has to be noted that these kinds of recommendations are only a first step. The right needle size for you will largely depend on two factors: