Needles

One of the most important things to think about when considering taking up knitting is what sort of knitting needles are you going to use? This can be pretty overwelming if you have never tried before. I was pretty lucky when I first started as my mums a knitter so I started using what was in the house already.  This post is going to be a run down of the different types of needles, what I personally think is the best idea for beginners and my personal preference now (this is all my personal view though I'm sure many other people will totally disagree with me and if you do please leave a comment! I would love to hear other peoples views)

The major difference is straight needles and circular needles, this post is going to be on straight needles as for a begineer that is all thats needed, I will cover circular needles on a later date a long with double points and other exciting things.

 The picture above shows standard metal needles, the brand which are sold in pretty much every craft shop I have been in in the UK and in my experience is a good reliable brand, I would personally suggest straight metal needles as a good starting set as they are pretty difficult to damage and last for a very long time, the set I use now for "special projects" ones that I want to give extra love to are the first set I was given which are missmatched ones from my mum so most likely older than I am.

The other option with straight needles is bamboo

 

Bamboo is what I prefere to use now.  I have a full set of bamboo needles now as I like how light they are and how smooth they knit.  Despite this I wouldn't recommend them for beginners as they are signifincantly more flexible and when you are struggling with mastering stitches they don't feel as solid or unbreakable as there metal counterparts.

As stated at the start this is all just my views, happy knitting :)