New to knitting, need help with purchasing needles and yarn

[Becky Morgan]

If I knit worsted weight with 10s, I get lace, but that's just me. If 7s work for you, then use them. Use whatever feels right in your hands and gives you the look you want.

As for yarn, this is not the time to spend a fortune on a single skein of something hard to handle. Go for a smooth light color in a lower-priced (maybe not completely bargain bin, but not expensive) yarn, so you can see your stitches. If your hands will put up with wool, buy a skein of Lion Wool or Classic 220-not-the-superwash kind, knit yourself a small purse, iPod cozy or other little project, and felt it. It's a lot of fun and any mistakes you make on your first piece will disappear in the wash

[Ellieblue]

I would recommend buying circular needles. Most people discard their straight needles once they get going on knitting.

[AngelaR]

Circular needles can be very confusing to a new knitter, and I feel, anyway, that it's best to learn on straight needles and get stitch identification and the back and forth down first.

The hardest thing when learning anything new is the frustration that comes with learning something new. If you try to eliminate the many things that can cause frustration to the new knitter, then people will keep knitting and not give up because they are having trouble with a fundamental understanding of the hobby.

I recently mentored a young university student who was interested in knitting. She is slowly moving forward as she has time and has tons of questions and observations (which has caused me to observe my own knitting closer) and it's been a wonderful experience in learning for both of us. She pointed out to me recently when she had a question on wrap and turn, that wasn't covered in the two knitting books she's gotten. Now, if I had not been there to talk her through it and explain things, odds are she would have given up on what she was knitting and never picked it up again, because she's new and it hasn't yet turned in to a passion for her (if it ever does).

I feel, as a somewhat experienced knitter, that it is incumbent upon me to nurture a new knitter and allow as much opportunity for that passion to grow as possible. I'm happy cheering on and teaching the building blocks for a good knitter, and let the more experienced folks here add to her knowledge as they do mine. So, for me, I try to recommend the things that are easiest to learn on before moving up, as we all much crawl before we walk.

So sure, you can easily learn on circs, people do, but, all things being equal, learning on the straights will set the foundation and once they have that down, they can easily move on to circulars and find out why most of us knit on them. Which can lead them to DPNs and Magic Looping and the wonders of tubular knitting.

Here endeth the lesson

[Abby123]

I knit with mostly circulars too. But, I agree, it is easier to learn on straight needles. Light colored worsted yarn with some spring like acrylic or wool blends is a good starter yarn.

[suzeeq]

A coworker asked me to show her how to knit and came to work with circs (probably because that's what I was working on). She had no problem learning on them. Having tried to do a sample last year on straights, I had the worst time ever. I can see that they add some difficulty to the learning curve for a new knitter. You have to juggle these long sticks as well as learn how to wrap the yarn and make stitches. The needles in circs are shorter and easier to hold. The cord doesn't get in the way, as long as you use a 24-29" one.