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Circular Knitting Needles
from: Deb St. George, Publisher, Tapestry-Crochet.comCircular knitting needles are a perfect option if you want to create something like a seamless garment. Making seamless bags, sweaters and other objects becomes with the use of circular knitting needles. These needles come in various sizes and shapes. But for the beginners who are not aware of what these circular needles are, here is a brief introduction.
Circular knitting needles are not much different from an ordinary straight needle. But the only difference is that the two hard tips of a needle are joined with a flexible cord. These needles are made from the same material as the straight needles. Hence you can buy your circular knitting needles, in your favorite materials like plastic, bamboo, metal and resin.
These needles can be bought in a fixed format or an interchangeable one. In the fixed format the needle is permanently attached to the cord, while in an interchangeable system you can change needles according your needs. The circular needles can be bought as a part of needle set which includes all the needles necessary for knitting.
Circular knitting needles generally range from size 3 to 15, the chord can buy according to your circumference of the object. Commonly the needles are available in sizes 16,24,29,36 and 40 inches, but different producers make needles of the odd sizes like 11 and 34. The length of the needles depends on the pattern you are planning for your object.
Working with the circular knitting needles is a pleasing experience. The chord attached to the needles holds most of the stitches, and hence you can cast on a fairly large amount of stitches on the needles. As the weight of the stitches is well distributed in a circular knitting needle, you can easily carry on large projects or work with heavy yarns.
Circular needles prove beneficial when it comes to working round, joining the two ends to create a circular knit can be difficult on straight needles. But with the circular needles it can be done in a jiffy. Stitches like the stockinet stitch are mainly used for circular knitting. But knitting enthusiasts can make use of the garter stitch.
To create a stockinet stitch you will have to knit ever row, while for a garter stitch, you will have knit one row and purl one row, which is to be repeated. You can create a reverse stockinet stitch, by purling every row.
The circular knitting needles facilitate the knitters to try out different stitches without any trouble. By using these needles for circular knitting you can easily create different patterns and variations.
Along with circular knitting, the circular knitting needles can also be used for flat knitting. If you want to knit a big afghan or warps then these needles prove beneficial. These needles hold the stitches in place, so that it becomes easier for you to knit large objects. While working on flat objects, do not join the ends in round, instead cast on the stitches and start knitting.
The circular knitting needles help the beginner to carry out big projects, without thinking about the twisting of the stitches. Hence once you are acquainted with the basics of knitting, you can easily use circular knitting needles to produce beautiful objects.
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