Circular needles?? Can you use them if not knitting round?

[LeftFootGreen]

Hi there,

Can you use circular needles when you're not knitting in the round?

I was thinking that using circular needles might be easier for the blanket that I want to knit (longer than the straight needles that I've ordered), but not sure how to use them for regular knitting. Actually, I don't know how to use them at all!

Can you help explain this to me? I've looked at the tutorials on this site, but I think that they are for knitting in the round??

Thanks!

Kym

[DQ]

I thought that until I started reading more posts on this site

You can use them for straight knitting though! I'm doing it with a shawl at the moment. All you do is cast on as normal and start knitting with the free needle, then when you get to the end just turn the knitting around and start again like you do with ordinary needles. It's best if you try and forget about the cable when you start if you get confused like me

I hope I've explained it ok for you!

[Ingrid]

A lot of us never use straights anymore. I use circs for all my knitting--in the round or flat.

[Yarnlady]

I don't even own any straights except for DPNs which I prefer for socks. I have five sets of interchangeable needles and they fill every knitting need I have.

[knitasha]

This question seems to come up often enough that the subject should be stickied, no?