Knitting Supplies & Knitting Needles

Knitting needles are where most of this page starts and ends: bamboo, wood and stainless steel, in the four shapes that cover almost everything anyone knits. The rest is what keeps them findable and your tension even.

Which needles for which job?

  • Single point, 36 pieces in carbonized bamboo — flat pieces worked back and forth. Scarves, blanket squares, the front of a jumper. Bamboo knitting needles grip the yarn slightly, which is why they are the usual recommendation for a first project: stitches do not slide off while you are still working out where your hands go.
  • Short 15 cm needles — small flat pieces, and useful if you knit in a confined space like a train seat.
  • Circular knitting needles, 80 cm, 3 to 10 mm in wood — anything worked in the round, and anything wide enough that the weight would otherwise hang off one straight needle. A jumper body, a shawl, a hat.
  • Sock knitting needles, 9 inch fixed circulars in stainless steel — the small-circumference tube of a sock cuff or a sleeve. Steel because it is stiff enough at that short length and slides fast.

Bamboo or metal?

Bamboo is warmer to hold, quieter, and grips — good for slippery yarn and for beginners. Metal is faster and stiffer — good for cotton, for tight stitchers, and for anyone who has got quick enough that grip has become drag. Most knitters end up with both and reach for one or the other depending on the yarn.

Where do they go between projects?

A knitting needle case is not a luxury once you own more than one set. Four here: a 40 cm zip-around for straights up to 14 inches, a slim 43 cm for 16-inch straights with a measuring strip printed on it, a case built for circulars so the cables do not kink, and a combined knitting and crochet organiser if you do both.

The two small things that change how the knitting feels

Knitting stitch markers — plain ones for where, numbered 0 to 9 for where and which, which is what a raglan or a colourwork chart actually needs. And a tension ring, which guides the yarn over your finger so the drag stays the same stitch to stitch. If your gauge swatch never matches your finished piece, that is the fix.

Also here: yarn bowls and a spinning ball holder for working at home, and project bags for not. Crochet as well? Crochet supplies. Storage on its own is in storage and organizers.