Knitting with circular needles

[Princesspollyyy]

Hi,

I'm wanting to start a new project of knitting a jumper using circular needles. I found a tutorial on YouTube, but the knitting needles needed seemed confusing, I think because it was American?

It said I needed 9mm needles, but three different lengths of tubing for the different parts knitted.

i looked on amazon for the needles i needed but cannot find any of the sizes. Would a kit be better with interchangeable tubing?

any help gratefully received!

It is easier if you have different lengths of cord / wire/ tube between the needles. If the cord is too short for the number of stitches they squash up into each other. Too long and the stitches end up stretched and you have to work with an annoying loop of cord that is always in the wrong place.

If I was starting my needle collection again I would get an interchangeable needle end cord kit. Look for reviews to make sure the stitches don't get caught on the join.

What is the size you are needing? You can knit anything on the biggest size cable/wire using a technique called the magic loop. It means you can make small circular things like sleeves and hats using a large cable. Do you have a link to the pattern? You could make most things on a 100 cm cable. I would suggest getting a 9mm interchangeable needle. Do you need a smaller needle for the ribbing if any?

Also when patterns talk about the the size of the cable needed they often mean the size of the cable plus the two needles a the the end of it so a 76 cm cable would make up a 100 cm circular (the cable plus the two needles). This might be why you aren’t seeing the size you need.

Looking for circular knitting needles on Amazon can be quite painful. The ones you need are probably there but finding them is tricky.

Maybe have a look on the Wool Warehouse site for example - this should take you to the results of a search on fixed circular needles with 9mm diameter: https://www.woolwarehouse.co.uk/needles-and-hooks?needle_hook_diameter=5795&needle_type=1804

Interchangeable needles are definitely worth investigating as well. Here's a search at WW on 9mm interchangeables: https://www.woolwarehouse.co.uk/needles-and-hooks?needle_hook_diameter=5795&needle_type=1808

Depending on what kind of yarn you were planning to knit with (cotton, wool, acrylic, bamboo) I think I would go with the Addi Click bamboo or basic (metal).

Thanks so much for the quick replies!

Here is the link for the tutorial I'm hoping to follow

Ah yes so the classic American crafting problem with measurements, I have the same thing with sewing "use a 3mm stitch length and a 1/4" seam allowance" OMG just pick one system of measurement! (I realise as a British person this is pretty rich given we've never adopted kilometres).

So she says you need a 24", 16" and then anything over 35-36" needle, so 60cm, 40cm and 100cm, all very standard lengths for circular needles.

I assume you've clocked that she's using gigantic balls of yarn, weighing 340g. Normally yarn comes in either 50g or 100g balls, although some larger sizes are available. The pattern will tell you how many metres (or yards!) you need for your size, and then when you're looking at yarn (e.g. this chunky from Cygnet) it tells you how many metres there are in one ball, so you can figure out how many you need.

I’ve had a quick look. You don’t really need to get all those different size of cables, you could do it all on a longer cable using the magic loop. I expect she’s saying use all the different sizes as she is earning commission if you buy from her link. Have a look at this tutorial on magic loop knitting.
https://blog.tincanknits.com/2013/10/03/magic-loop/
You just need a 9mm interchangeable needles and a long cable like 120 cm .
If you are in the U.K. you might find that brand of yarn quite expensive.

Thanks so much, yes I already checked the cost of the yarn, and it would be £60! 😂😂 So I won't be purchasing that lol. Thanks I will check out the magic loop

Thanks so much this is so so helpful.

So would you say that Cygnet yarn is one I could go for?

This is a good resource for finding alternative yarns. The lion brand yarn that she links to isn’t an expensive brand in America, it’s only expensive for us here in the U.K. you can use this website to input your yarn and find alternatives. Similar brands in the U.K. would be Stylecraft. Drops is reasonably priced and natural fibres, you can buy it from woolwarehouse.
https://yarnsub.com/yarns/stylecraft/winter_magic_xl

So it looks as if the original yarn is available at LoveCrafts - https://www.lovecrafts.com/en-gb/p/lion-brand-wool-ease-thick-quick/

Assuming you needed around 612m of yarn, the balls are a smaller size than in her pattern, so you'd need 7 (could risk it with 6 and see how you get on as the pattern doesn't have individual yardages for individual sizes). That would be 50 quid.

The Cygnet yarn isn't thick enough I now realise, you're looking for a Super Bulky, or Super Chunky. Cygnet do have one: https://www.woolwarehouse.co.uk/yarn/cygnet-seriously-chunky-all-colours

and it would cost you about 36 quid.

The recommended yarn is mostly acrylic with a bit of wool, the Cygnet is 100% acrylic. As a starter yarn I think that's a good idea, although I personally would find it too sweaty to wear. You could go for Drops Andes - I really like Drops yarn: https://www.woolwarehouse.co.uk/yarn/drops-andes-all-colours

And that would actually be cheaper as you'd need fewer balls of yarn, but you might be a bit limited in terms of which colours they have enough stock.

I would personally go for the Drops.

Yarn subs for that brand here, but I like drops Andes too as @tribpot suggested. There’s usually a discount code for 10 % off in the latest issue of Simply Crochet or Simply Knitting for Woolwarehouse.
https://yarnsub.com/yarns/lion_brand/re-spun_thick_and_quick

@Princesspollyyy have you finished your sweater yet? I've just come across this post as I'm about to attempt this sweater as well and was looking for advice on yarn alternatives! What yarn did you go for in the end?

No I am yet to purchase! lol. I'm really busy and haven't got round to it yet. But I really hope to get it soon and start 😂

I'm debating whether to try it all with one set of magic loop needle (120cm) or buy three different sets. In the past, I've found it easier to knit smaller things with a shorter loop so the sleeves in this case I may find tricky with a long cable.

Here's to us knitting our raglan sweaters!