Knitting Yarn

Yarn, hooks and kits

Yarn from King Cole, Stylecraft, Cygnet, James C Brett, Wendy, Woolcraft and Knitco, alongside crochet hooks, needle felting supplies, punch needle tools, project bags and complete craft kits.

The weights run from double knit — the standard most published patterns assume — through aran to super chunky, which knits up fast enough to finish a blanket in a weekend.

Before you cast on

Work a tension square every time. Needle size in a pattern is a starting suggestion, not an instruction: the same yarn on the same needles gives different results in different hands, and a small difference over a jumper front becomes several centimetres.

Buy the whole project's yarn in one order so the dye lot matches. Shades vary between batches, and a sleeve knitted from a later lot can be visibly different in daylight even when the label says the same colour.

New to it

Heavier yarn is the easier place to learn. The stitches are large enough to see clearly, mistakes are simple to spot and unpick, and a scarf or hat grows fast enough to stay interesting. A kit removes the other obstacle — not knowing what to buy — by packing the yarn, the tools and the instructions together.