Knitting needles come in a wide variety, but all serve the same purpose of creating knitted wonders. Take some needles, some wool, cotton or any other yarn and you can create socks, scarves, blankets, sweaters, hats and so much more, but there is more to it. Knitting needles shape up the project and provide comfort to the knitter. To start with there are four types of knitting needles such as single point, double point, cable needle and circular needle. These needles serve different purposes in knitting.
If you are just starting with knitting, you won’t be needing them all but once you dive deep into the craft, these will become essentials. You can start with the straight pair, generally a single-pointed needle or even a circular and then move on with knitting in the round where you will get the option to either knit with double-pointed needles or the circulars. There is no rule or guidelines for the best knitting needles as every crafter has their own preference. Besides, the needle types, other important factors are the needle size, length and material.
Here’s in brief what the different needles are and what purpose they serve.
The Single Pointed (STNs): These classic needles have a stopper at one end and a tapered point at the other. You use the needle to hold the stitches that have just been knitted and to work the ones that have yet to be knitted in order to form a fabric of sorts. STNs are only used for flat knitting.
The Double Pointed (DPNs): These needles are sold not in pairs like STNs are but in sets of 4 or 5. DPNs come with points at either end. They are used to knit small circular items like hats, socks, mittens and more. While you use only two needles at a time, the others in the set will hold the stitches yet to be worked.
The Circular Needle: These are needles that feature two knitting points joined by a cable. These needles are great for knitting both flat and round. There are two variants of circulars, fixed circulars (FCNs) and interchangeable circulars (ICNs). While both of these serve the same purpose of knitting, they are different. The fixed circular needles are permanently joined together, which means you can’t change the needles or the length of the cable. Interchangeable circular needles are much more versatile as you can swap out the needle tips to change their size, or change the cable according to your knitting project.
Interchangeable knitting needle sets are the best of these, believed by knitters to be a worthwhile investment into the loved craft. A set provides a combination of needles sizes and cable lengths that allow comfort to knit from socks to chunky sweaters and even blankets. So, if you own a set you have much more freedom of knitting different projects.
The Cable Needle: These needles specialize only when working cables or cable stitches. They are in a shape so the stitches do not fall off while other stitches are being worked. They are relatively short with tapered tips to ensure a smooth transition. If you are a beginner you may not need it but once you get pro, you will be have fun knitting with it.
So, we have covered the essential knitting needles that you must have. Knitting is one's personal expression of creating and every knitter has their own reasons and preferences. So, before you buy knitting needles, make sure you cover the essentials.
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