What thickness of wool would work well with 5mm needles?

[TooTicky]

Prefer thicker as I am a slow knitter...

DK (double knit) or chunky, I think.

Thanks

Hello TooTicky Glad the pattern arrived at last! I have to disagree (sorry Prettycandles)- most double knit will come out quite lacy on 5mm and chunky could be a bit too dense. I would aim for aran personally.

Aran? Ah.

chunky would be best unless you want a pretty loose knit.

Most yarn will say either DK or aran or 4 ply or chunky on the ball band, so you should be alright

oops, I bow to tamum's opinion (she is a more experienced knitter than me!)

Hey TooTicky,

Aran weight prob best. I like Rowan all seasons cotton on this size of needle.

Oh nooo, you could be right Miaou. Stuff like Rowan Summer Tweed and All Seasons cotton is classed as aran (usually) and knits on 5mm needles, but you're right that there are other arans that are usually done on 4.5mm

Wow, two mentions of All Seasons cotton in about 3 nanoseconds.

I am in awe of you all. I just can't hold facts like this in my head.

I bow to everyone else's opinion.

I'm the sort of knitter who just goes ahead with whatever she's got. The pattern said 4mm needles, but my 4mm needles are currently the armature for one of ds1's inventions, so I'll do it on 3.5mm needles. The pattern said XXX wool, but I like this YYY wool better. And so on! Seem to work out OK most of the time.

But not everyone's as slapdash as me LOL.

My Debbie Bliss Baby Knits for Beginners book tells me that aran is knitted on 4.5 or 5mm needles.

Most of the aran stuff I've knitted from it is on 5mm needles.

PC, I work that way with cooking, but knitting is such a commitment it scares me a little!

Hi I've only got size 8 knitting needles 4mm but wool says a 5mm I'm in lockdown course of coronavirus so cant buy needles cant anyway as only food shops open . Can I knit with these size 8 needles ?

Petloverann

Morning
Yes you can knit on those needles but you may need to go up a size in your knitting pattern as the finished item will be smaller.

What are you knitting?

I’ve used 2 strands of DK with 5 mm, but that was for either dolls’ blankets, or twiddle muffs (for hospital patients with dementia).

Would also work well for a using-up-the-stash blanket for dogs/cats/humans.

Agree with Aran.

DK - double knit - is usually on 4mm needles. If you browse through some of the wool sites online, or somewhere like Hobbycraft, the individual yarns will usually tell you what type of needles are recommended to use.

Once you get into knitting you can experiment a bit for different effects. In general terms, if you use a very fine/thin yarn on thick needles, you get a lacy, loopy very open end result. Using a thicker yarn on thinner needles gives very bulky, thick knitting. IMHO one size doesn't make much of a difference - if it says 4mm and all you have is 3.75mm or 4.25mm then go for it. (As long as you're knitting a scarf or shawl or something, and not a jumper which needs to fit perfectly. Smaller needles = smaller end result).