Ideal knitting needles for beginners are short, medium diameter, and have
Ideal knitting needles for beginners are short, medium diameter, and have a slighty grabby finish. Ten inch lightly finished wooden needles are best. Wooden needles with a matte finish will help hold the stitches on the needles. Avoid wooden needles with a high gloss finish as they will be much more slippery.A second place choice would be a matte finished plastic needle. While plastic is a bit cheaper than wood, wood was the hands down favorite of all my students. They all preferred spending the extra money for a better knitting experience.
Needles are sold by length and size. Standard needle lengths for straight needles are 10" and 14" needles. The shorter 10" needles are much easier for beginners to handle. Size refers to the diameter of the needle. A medium sized US needle would be a size 7 or 8 needle while the corresponding metric size would be 4.5 mm to 5 mm.
Long needles tend to get caught on clothing and are more awkward to handle. As a beginner, just learning to handle the yarn and stitch making process is enough of a challange. Keep it simple with short lightly finished wooden needles!
