Guides

Short, practical answers to the questions we get asked most often about yarn and knitting tools. Each guide sticks to what can actually be checked: needle sizes, metres per ball, fibre content, and what the terms on a yarn band are defined to mean.

Choosing tools

Knitting needles for beginners. Which type and size to start with, what the mm and US numbers mean, and when a set is worth buying.

Planning a project

How much yarn for a sweater. How to work out metres from your own swatch instead of guessing, with a worked example.

Choosing yarn

Eco-friendly yarn: what the labels mean. GOTS, OEKO-TEX, mulesing-free, undyed, recycled. What each term covers and what it does not.

Yarn for summer knitting. How cotton, linen and silk blends behave differently from wool, and what to change when you knit them.