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>>Continental Knitting

Lesson 1: Basic Definitions

Lesson 2: Cast On

Lesson 3: Slanting of a stitch

Lesson 4: Knitting First Row

Lesson 5: Purling First Row

Lesson 6: Forming selvage or edge stitch 

Lesson 7: Working in rounds

Lesson 8: Analysing knit and purl stitches

Lesson 9: Types of yarn

Lesson 10: Types of needles

Lesson 11: Knitting gauge & happy knitting

Lesson 12: Basic Shapes

Lesson 13: Correcting Mistakes

Lesson 14: Cables

Lesson 15: Connecting Two Yarns

Lesson 16: Bind Off

Lesson 17: Seaming 

Lesson 18: Picking Up Stitches

CONTINENTAL TECHNIQUE Lesson 10
Knitting Needles

Knowing the difference in yarns helps you to choose proper needles, which is next important factor in happy knitting


  • Needles are good when: they have smooth surface; they have smooth and properly balanced (not too sharp and not too dull) tips; they are not heavy and for circular needles when connector is smooth and flexible. Needles can be made of wood, aluminum, metal and plastic retaining all of the above characteristics. No matter what material are needles made of, you must always know how to inspect knitting needles .

  • Wooden needles are the best for working with slippery yarns such as some of polyester yarns and silk. These needles reduce sliding of stitches. It means that wooden needles may be not the best choice for working with woolen yarns.

  • Light-weighted metal or aluminum needles with good quality coating are always the best choice for woolen and cotton yarns because these yarns are not slippery

  • Try to avoid low quality plastic needles because plastic material does not have elasticity and usually plastic needles are very stiff. This is not healthy for your hands.

  • For the circular needles it is very important that cord connecting both needles has smooth connecton with the needle. If it does not, then moving stitches becomes a headache.

  • When processing large number of stitches back and forth, try to avoid working with long straight needles. As number of rows grow, it becomes hard for your shoulders and hands to keep these stitches in the air. Try to use circular needles where you can keep your work laying on the surface nicely distributing stitches without overtaxing your shoulders and hands.

  • >>Allover Topics

  • Yarn Over stitch (YO)
  • Magic Loop
  • Slip stitches onto waste yarn or cable needle

  • Twisted knit stitch (Granny Stitch)
  • Make 1 Stitch (M1)
  • 2-Tail Cast ON
  • Connecting 2-colored yarns
  • Bind off stitches in the middle of the work
  • Decrease stitches and changing the slant
  • Making cables without cable needle
  • Slip first stitch
  • Fixing mistake with crochet hook
  • Bind off with crochet hook
  • Two-Needle Bind off

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