Needle sizes???

[Curlykat]

How important is it to exactly follow the needle suggestions in patterns? For example, the only needles I have are size 10 (6.0 mm), but I want to do a little dishcloth project, but there don't seem to be any size 10 dishclothes. Can I just pick one and start anyway??

On a different note...
YAY!! I'm very happy - I've figured out how to cast on, and how to do both the knitting and purling stitches!!! Go me!!

[Ingrid]

If you knit a dishcloth with a size 10 needle, but it calls for a smaller size needle--you'll just end up with a larger, more loosely knit dishcloth. Still excellent for practice!

Great progress!

[LM Needle Fanatic]

"Needle suggestions" are just that, suggestions. You may knit looser or tighter so need to use a different needle size. What you could do for a dishcloth is edit the pattern to fit the gauge you're getting on the size 10 needles to get the size dishcloth you want. (If you're getting 4 stitches to the inch on the 10's and the dishcloth is 6" wide, cast on 24 to get the desired width.)

Congrats on your progress!

[Jan in CA]

Now is the time for me to point out something I've discovered. I knit a bunch of dishcloths with size 7 needles and they looked wonderful, however I found they didn't dry when used! I wanted something that dries fast so you don't get that icky smell and there's less time for bacteria to develop. (at least that's my thinking) So I knit a few up in size 9 needles. Big difference and those are the ones I use now. When they are washed they look just as good as the ones done on smaller needles, too. Not sure what I'll do with the tighter ones...maybe dust cloths.

Anyway, go ahead and give it a try.

[brendajos]

trivets!