How to Choose a Needle

How to Choose a Needle

Choosing a needle for your project is a very personal experience. The choices we have today in specialty yarns and the tools we use to create with have evolved. Some of the newer materials in the needles available make a huge difference in the overall experience of the creation of your project!

Below are fiber categories with suggestions to help you with your selection of the right needle for the fiber you've chosen.

Wool, Wool Blend and Acrylic:

These yarns can be smooth or fuzzy, fine, or bulky. They are covered with tiny, microscopic scales that will cling to each other, the needle and you! For stitches that slide along the needle easily, chose a needle with a slick surface such as:

Addi Turbo

Inox Express

Quicksilver

Not everyone enjoys working with metal so you may want to use wood or bamboo needles with a smooth and polished surface such as:

Crystal Palace

Plastic needles have a lot of static electricity and are not ideal for fuzzy yarns.

Unmercerized Cotton:

A soft, fuzzy fiber that knits well on metal or aluminum needles with a hard finish.

Mercerized Cotton:

This fiber is treated, reducing fuzziness and creates a hard, smooth luster. Use a needle that's not too slippery such as plastic, wood, or bamboo.

Linen:

Extremely slippery. Linen is best used with not-too-slick bamboo, wood or plastic needles.

Silk:

Silk is much like cotton in that it can be either soft and slubby or hard and smooth. Your needle selection would be the same as for cotton.

Alpaca, Cashmere, Angora:

Very, very soft and fuzzy. Best knit on bamboo or wood needles such as:

Crystal Palace

Plymouth Bamboo

Susanne's Ebony or Rosewood

Brittany Birch

SUPPLIES FOR THE FIBER ARTIST