Learn about Knitting Needles and Accessories

Learn about knitting needles and accessories in this easy to follow, step by step instructional video.

I’m Toni Lipe of Toni’s Design Studio. Right now, we’re going to talk about all of the available knitting needles that are on the market. There’s such a wide variety. Some needles are better for projects than others and mostly, it’s personal taste. I enjoy collecting knitting needles so I have a wide variety. First, we’re going to talk about the single point needles. Now, your knitting needles are your primary tool in your knitting projects. Your yarns change, your knitting needles pretty much stay the same except you might use that made of different materials, different lengths. Your basic knitting needles are made of either wood, bamboo, plastic, aluminum, some are even covered with nickel, and they’re nickel plated. These beautiful ones are made out of brass wood, these are aluminum, these are very inexpensive glittery plastic. These are bamboo and these are bamboo, and these are some that just have pretty decorative tops that I just like. Different knitting needles are good for different projects. They come in a huge variety sizes we have very, very thin ones, and then we have huge thick needles that are wonderful for knitting big bulky, fluffy scarfs. And they’re also 10 inches long so that you don’t have to worry about the extra width. This single point needles usually come in 10 inches or 14 inches. It’s a personal preference. I started out with 14 inch needles and decided they’re a little bit too long and I was starting put people with them. So I generally use 10 inch knitting needles now. But some people like to put the knitting needle under their arm for knitting, for casting on, for knitting with color. I even have a pair of knitting needles that I can use in a movie theater when it starts. The tips light up and they’re just kind of a novelty item for me. All right so, you have your basic needles and different materials. Knitting with fluffy fabrics is sometimes easier to knit with aluminum or a nickel plated needle. Some people think that you can knit faster with a nickel plated needle. Some yarns that are slippery, it’s better the use the wood or the bamboo because it doesn’t slide of the needles quite so easily. But like I said, it’s a personal preference. If you want to use with all the time, you do what makes you comfortable and feels good to your hands. A lot of people don’t like to knit with aluminum or plastic because it doesn’t feel warm in their hands and it hurts. So sometimes, the bamboo does have a warmer feel or warmer hand to it. Now, those are single point needles. We also have circular needles. And circular needles are among my favorite. They also come in the same materials. They have cables connect to them. There’s a tip at each end and a cable, very flexible cable in the middle. They come and all the sizes from very, very small to very, very large and a wonderful for knitting garments in the round. There’s no seaming which is wonderful. And when you knit in the round, you can just knit all the way around and get your stockinette knit stitch with never having to purl. So the circular needles are also very, very good for large projects such Afghan’s because there’s much more long cable to rest all of those stitches and then they don’t fall off the single point stitches. I use cable needles for a flat knitting as well. If you’re traveling, it’s nice to have the cable needles because if for some reason they should slip out your knitting, they won’t fall to the ground because they are connected to the other. With the single point needles if one falls, you’ve got to go find it. The cables kind of ensure that they’re going to stay together all the time, which is comforting on an airplane. Another type of knitting needles is the double point knitting needles. They come in a variety of sizes and usually common sets of four or five. These are larger when scissor made out of plastic material and are just a tiny bit flexible which is nice. These knitting needles are made out of bamboo. They come in six inch, eight inch, and some even smaller as four or five inches. The double point needles are called that because they do have point on each end, not connected to anything, and they’re wonderful for working small, small projects and around, such as a sock. This is top of the sock that I’m working on and you divide the stitches among the needles and then just keep knitting around and around. That’s not as hard as it look. And it’s a lot of fun. Double point needles are also use sometimes for cuffs on sweaters. They’re used for hats, anything that you wouldn’t want a seam in . So these are another group of my favorite knitting needles. So we have our single point needles, our cable needles, and our double point needles. We have nickel plated, bamboo, aluminum, plastic. Take your pick, let’s just knit. Now, we’re going to discuss yarn weights and how to choose yarn for your next project.