When it comes to choosing knitting needles for your project, there are three major concerns you should beware of.
Knitting needle materials
When shopping for your first set of knitting needles, you may be surprised at the variety of materials available.
Metal needles: Needles made of metals such as aluminum are slippery with blunt tips. They are great starter needles for beginners, as the yarn slides easily off them.
Wooden or bamboo needles: Wooden needles are perfect for almost every yarn type. They are smooth without being slippery and offer a good grip. Bamboo needles are similar to wood and are sustainably made.
Plastic needles: These are made of inexpensive material in fun colors that are great for kids who want to knit, but they aren’t durable for long term use.
Carbon fiber needles: These are revolutionary products, they are lightweight, super strong and great for thin needles below size 1 because they will not break so they are perfect for lace knitting.
For beginners, consider buying wood or bamboo needles, because they have a bit of grip that can hold your stitches on the needles. If you are a fast knitter, a metal needle is a good way to go as your stitches are going to slip quickly off the needle.
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Knitting needle types
Basically, there are three types of knitting needles.
Single pointed needles: Your basic needles are single-pointed needles, they are pointed at one end, with a knob at the other end to prevent stitches from slipping off.
Double pointed needles: Double-pointed needles are tapered on both ends with no caps. They may be used for circular or flat knitting. Some knitters use double pointed needles to knit small tube-shaped projects like socks and gloves.
Circular needles: For projects that require you to knit in the round, you will need circular needles which are shorter sticks joined by a flexible cable. You can also buy interchangeable circular needles with different-sized tips that are removable.
Needle size
There are four major needle size measurements, they are US, UK, EU metric and Japan, and here is a conversion chart.
In the US, needles come in sizes as small as 8/0, very thin diameter for lace knitting, and as large as 50, which looks like a broomstick handle. For the majority of knitting projects, needles in between size 7 to size 10 will do the work.
Many needles have the size branded somewhere on the end of shaft. However, some needles don’t have markings on them at all, and you need to figure out what size it is. You can use a needle gauge, which is a plastic or metal card featuring holes the same size as standard needles. You slot your needle in the holes until you find the correct size.
The size of a needle should match yarn weight, you will get different results of your fabric with different sizes of needles.