What knitting needles for a blanket? Straight or circular?

[LizardOfOz]

Hi all,
I'm a fairly novice knitter. I've knitted scarves, a small blanket etc. I'd like to try a bigger blanket now, maybe 200 stitches x 200 rows. (As an aside, is that a good way to measure?)
I'll be doing a border K2P2 along the bottom and top, probably 20 stitches on each side and then the middle of the blanket will be one row plain, one row purl, so quite basic
The small blanket I knit before was 2.5 balls of 100g if that gives an idea of the size.

And so, to my question - what type of needles is best? Will I even have room on the needles for 200 stitches? What do you all prefer/recommend?

Many thanks

Circular needles with a long cable (80-100cm) would be my advice. Gentler on the hands and less risk of stitches falling off.

What @Burgerqueenbee said, plus it's really handy being able to slide the stitches into the middle of the cable and shove the blanket into a bag without worry that stitches will fall off the needle.

Definitely circular! I found metal needles easier to work with than wooden, I feel like the wool slides better.

Thanks @Burgerqueenbee @CyberCritical @MuchTooTired for the unanimous verdict!

Circular needles it is!
Would you recommend any in particular? I'll have to order online , no craft shop within half an hour drive

@LizardOfOz I mostly use Knit Pro wooden circulars, but the Pony metal ones are much cheaper and fine too.

Definitely agree re circular needles. I love Addi, find them really smooth to knit with

I also second knit pro needles. I bought mine off of Amazon, and whilst they weren’t the cheapest they’ve been handling the ridiculously heavy blanket I’ve been knitting wonderfully where a cheaper set snapped.

I like knit pro interchangeable circular needles, I like that I can just unscrew the needles and put caps on the end if I need to, or switch to a different needle size.

Definitely circulars, I knit afghans for donation all the time. I actually knit everything on circulars now, they don't stick out like straights do, so I can knit anywhere comfortably, plus no dropped needles! My two favorites are Chiagoo and Addi.

Circulars all the way! I use them for everything.

My favourites are Milward needles. Good quality, smooth but not as slippery as Knit Pro Zing, and the join between needle and cable is a bit smoother than Birch, and they're not outrageously expensive like Chiaogoo (and not so painfully sharp).

I’m (supposed to be)* knitting a big ‘rainbow’ blanket on a long, fat circular needle (7 mm IIRC) - it’s too big for a pair. (But I’m using it like a pair.)

Doing it in all garter stitch, one strand of chunky and one of DK, different colour DK each row (to use up some of my stash). Ends knotted and eventually turned into tassels, so no sewing in of ends. 🙂

*I’m doing it in 3 sections to be sewn together, but haven’t touched it for a while - I have more pressing projects.
I’ve made a similar but smaller one before, for Gdcs - it worked very well.

@GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER that sounds like it'll be a great blanket - garter stitch will make it lovely and squishy. I made a bedspread on 8mm needles a few years back - all in one piece, so it weighed a ton to work on eventually! 😄

@GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER @Catsmere
What great projects!!

I have ordered circular needles, I can't remember now, think I went for addi, it was a case of what Amazon had in stock in 4mm (or maybe 4.5). It'll clearly be a nice surprise for me when they arrive !

😂😂😂😂😂😂
Surprise, surprise!!