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Knitting needle

Knitting needle is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Knitting needle rather than just read about it. In short: A knitting needle or knitting pin is a tool in hand-knitting to produce knitted fabrics. They generally have a long shaft and taper at their end, but they are not nearly as sharp as sewing needles.

Knitting needle — main illustration
Knitting needle — illustration

Key takeaways

  • Knitting needle belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
  • Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
  • Connect Knitting needle to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
  • Reproduce the core statement of Knitting needle from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

A knitting needle or knitting pin is a tool in hand-knitting to produce knitted fabrics. They generally have a long shaft and taper at their end, but they are not nearly as sharp as sewing needles. Their purpose is two-fold. The long shaft holds the active (unsecured) stitches of the fabric, to prevent them from unravelling, whereas the tapered ends are used to form new stitches. Most commonly, a new stitch is formed by inserting the tapered end through an active stitch, catching a loop (also called a bight) of fresh yarn and drawing it through the stitch; this secures the initial stitch and forms a new active stitch in its place. In specialized forms of knitting the needle may be passed between active stitches being held on another needle, or indeed between/through inactive stitches that have been knit previously. The size of a needle is described first by its diameter and secondly by its length. The size of the new stitch is determined in large part by the diameter of the knitting needle used to form it, because that affects the length of the yarn-loop drawn through the previous stitch. Thus, large stitches can be made with large needles, whereas fine knitting requires fine needles. In most cases, the knitting needles being used in hand-knitting are of the same diameter; however, in uneven knitting, needles of different sizes may be used. Larger stitches may also be made by wrapping the yarn more than once around the needles with every stitch. The length of a needle determines how many stitches it can hold at once; for example, very large projects such as a shawl with hundreds of stitches might require a longer needle than a small project such as a scarf or bootie. Various sizing systems for needles are in common use.

Types

Single-pointed needles The most widely recognized form of needle is the single-pointed needle. It is a slender, straight stick tapered to a point at one end, with a knob at the other end to prevent stitches from slipping off. Such needles are always used in pairs and are usually 10-16 inches (25.4–40.6 cm) long but, due to the compressibility of knitted fabrics, may be used to knit pieces significantly wider. The knitting of new stitches occurs only at the tapered ends. Fictional depictions of knitting in movies, television programs, animation, and comic strips almost always show knitting done on straight needles. Both Wallace and Gromit and Monty Python, for example, show this type of knitting.

Flexible single-pointed needles Flexible single-pointed needles are used as single-pointed needles. Flexible single-pointed needles have a rigid needle part, a plastic cable and a stopper at the end of the cable. Flexible single-pointed needles can be bought readymade, or it is possible to make them yourself, if you have a set of interchangeable circular knitting needles and cables and stoppers.

Double-pointed needles

The oldest type of needle is the straight double-pointed needle. Double-pointed needles are tapered at both ends, which allows knitters to add stitches from either end. They are typically used (and sold) in sets of four or five and are commonly used for circular knitting. Since the invention of the circular needle, they have been most commonly used to knit smaller tube-shaped pieces, such as sleeves, collars, and socks. Usually, two needles are active while the others hold the remaining stitches. Double-pointed needles are somewhat shorter than single-pointed or circular needles and are usually used in the 13–20 cm length range, although they are also made longer. Double-pointed needles are depicted in a number of 14th-century oil paintings, typically called Knitting Madonnas, depicting Mary knitting with double-pointed needles (Rutt, 2003).

A cable needle is a special type of double-pointed needle that is typically very short and used to hold a very small number of stitches temporarily while the knitter is forming a cable pattern. They are often U-shaped, or have a U-shaped bend, to keep the held stitches from falling off while the primary needle is being used.

Circular needles

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Knitting needle: Bamboo knitting needles
Bamboo knitting needles
Knitting needle: A little dexterity is helpful in working with knitting needles
A little dexterity is helpful in working with knitting needles
Knitting needle: Straight knitting needles in a variety of sizes and materials. Different materials have varying amounts of friction, and are suitable for different yarn types.
Straight knitting needles in a variety of sizes and materials. Different materials have varying amounts of friction, and are suitable for different yarn types.
Knitting needle: Flexi single-pointed needles. The upper one is constructed from an interchangeable circular knitting needle, a cable and a stopper. The lower one is ready-made.
Flexi single-pointed needles. The upper one is constructed from an interchangeable circular knitting needle, a cable and a stopper. The lower one is ready-made.
Knitting needle: Double-pointed knitting needles in various materials and sizes. They come in sets of four, five or six.
Double-pointed knitting needles in various materials and sizes. They come in sets of four, five or six.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Knitting needle

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Knitting needle claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Knitting needle before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Knitting needle ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Knitting needle

In research
Knitting needle appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry
Engineering practice reuses Knitting needle in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom
Knitting needle is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Customary units of measurement in the United States, Knitting tools and materials, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life
Look for Knitting needle outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Knitting needle in 20 minutes

  1. Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
  2. Close the page and write down what Knitting needle means in your own words.
  3. Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
  4. Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
  5. Explain Knitting needle out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Knitting needle in simple terms?

A knitting needle or knitting pin is a tool in hand-knitting to produce knitted fabrics. They generally have a long shaft and taper at their end, but they are not nearly as sharp as sewing needles.

Why does Knitting needle matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Knitting needle?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Knitting needle.

Tags

  • Customary units of measurement in the United States
  • Knitting tools and materials

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