how many types of knitting needles are there? its a lot confusing with this circular needle and ordinary needles. i need to know if they are one and the same.

There are three types of knitting needles — straight, circular, and double-pointed. Anything you can knit on straights, you can also knit on circulars; but you can also knit in the round on circs, which can’t be done on straights. For this reason many knitters prefer circs. It’s expensive enought having to get all those different sized needles without buying them twice =:-o

Here is a good article about circular needles with a tutorial about joining in the round. Best of luck!

I am cleaning out an old filing cabinet where I want to store my knitting needles, and patterns. But I do not wish to have them rolling all the cabinet. I want them to stay put.

I organized my needles by size, then used rubber bands to keep them together. I have used a variety of containers to hold the needles, Quaker Oatmeal boxes are nice, pringle containers, beautifully decorated by my nephew, and some intersting tins that contained cookies, all worked well. I finally just threw them into a plastic bin, lying down so the points don’t get dulled. the circular needles i store in ziploc bags with labels for the sizes of the needles marking them.
I use page protectors for my patterns, the ones cut from magazines, or copied, or downloaded. they serve 3 purposes, i can mark the page protector rather than the pattern to keep my place, and they stay in good shape when I carry them around, and then I put them in binders, as the sheet protectors are already pre-holed.
I doubt there is any perfect solution, and i keep reinventing my storage. good luck to you!

I’ve started knitting and have been practicing with cheap yarn that I bought at a craft store. I want to start making headbands and obviously want to use better yarn, but I am not sure what the best would be. Anyone have any preferences or recommendations as to what kind of yarn or any specific brand of yarn? Thanks in advance!
I’ll be using a US 7 needle and a worsted yarn

I think the Hengyuanxiang’s better. I have many friends like this brand of yarn.

I’ve been looking for a good pattern, and I was just curious if I could get some input from others. I like knitting fun things like toys, and things that are different. Any tips would be great!

I have a book called World of Knitted Toys, by Kath Dalmeny. Most of the toys are knitted with sport-weight yarn over size 3 needles. It includes patterns for gorillas, kangaroos, snakes, koalas, wolves, and pigs, among others. The chapters are arranged by themes and they also include a doll (like a Canadian mountie) that goes with each one. Most of them are beginner or intermediate level patterns.

knittingpatterncentral.com also has some free patterns for toys and other things.

Enjoy!

A knitting cause that either knits for needy people or a cause which knits, sells knitting and uses the money to benefit a cause.

How about "Purls Of Compassion"

I did a search and didn’t find any other charities(I think) that have that name.

I’m knitting this flower here http://littlecottonrabbits.typepad.co.uk/free_knitting_patterns/2007/06/knitted_flower_.html
thanks for your help!

It just means that your turn the work earlier than at the end of the row (just meaning the last st isnt knitted). Just act as if that last st (or sometimes sts) arent there.

It’s very similar to short row knitting (a good example here: http://knitty.com/ISSUEsummer05/PATTtychus.html – the pattern has you knitting in a way that stop short of 2 sts every time you knit in a certain direction).

I am interested in starting my own local knitting group. There doesn’t seem to be any in SE Phoenix area, so I want to form one! Any suggestions?

There’s actually a group on Ravelry for crafters in Arizona. I’m sure you could find some people there. ^_^

I have a knitting pattern for a hat but it’s for an adult and i want to knit it for a petite 4-year old. Is it best to decrease the overall number of stitches? or the size of the needles i use? Or something else?

Knit a swatch, 1" x 1" using yarn and needle recommended in pattern.
Measure how many stiches per inch.
Measure child’s head.
Cast on number of stitches per inch x measurement of child’s head.
Increase and decrease stitches per pattern.
This formula will work for any size–child or adult.

I’m knitting a baby cardigan with the baby’s name on the back. I can knit it in using either intarsia or fairisle method, but I’m wondering if there are any fonts that are easy to create a knitting chart from, that aren’t too blocky and still have some style to them. Does anyone have any experience with this?

I have often charted my own monograms, etc. The trick is to find knit graph paper. Cross stitch charts and common graph paper are squares, knit stitches are rectangular (short and wide.) If you use a cross stitch chart, it will look like somebody squashed your design down, unless you repeat 1 row for every inch of your design. Knit graph paper accounts for this and is very easy to use. You can even use your own computer fonts and printer to print out a real size template, underlay it on the graph paper and chart the squares. Places that sell knitting machine supplies usually will have knit graph paper.

Row 5 of a knitting pattern says :

K1, P2; *K3, pass first st of sts just worked over last 2; P2: rep from * to last st, K1.

I understand how to do everything except ” pass first st of sts just worked over last 2."

Please help!

you just knit the three, then pick up the first of the three stitches with your left needle and pull it over those other two stitches without letting them drop off the right needle. This is done just like binding off a stitch.