Which yarn should I buy as a beginner?

Ball bands carry almost everything you need to know, and almost none of it is obvious the first time. Weight, recommended needle size, tension, fibre and washing instructions are all on there.

Step by step

1. Start with double knitting weight.Often shortened to DK. It works up at a reasonable speed, the stitches are big enough to see, and there is far more pattern support for it than for anything else.
2. Understand the weight names.From fine to heavy: lace, 4 ply, double knitting, aran, chunky, super chunky. Each has a recommended needle range on the band. American names differ, which trips people up on online patterns.
3. Choose a smooth, plain yarn.Not fluffy, not textured, not multicoloured. You need to be able to see the individual stitches to learn, and novelty yarns make that impossible.
4. Choose a light or mid colour.Navy and black are hard to knit for anyone and miserable for a beginner, because stitch structure disappears entirely in poor light.
5. Consider acrylic or a blend to start.Cheap enough to make mistakes with, machine washable, and it does not felt. Pure wool is nicer to knit and to wear, but a first project that shrinks in the wash is discouraging.
6. Read the ball band properly.It gives weight, length in metres, recommended needle size, expected tension over 10cm, fibre content and washing symbols. Length matters more than weight when comparing balls.
7. Compare by metres, not grams.A 100g ball of one yarn can hold half the length of another. Patterns that state a quantity in grams for a different yarn can be badly misleading.
8. Buy all the yarn for a project at once.And check the dye lot number on every ball. Different dye lots of the same shade differ visibly, and it shows as a line across a finished garment.
9. Buy one extra ball.Running out with two rows to go, with the dye lot no longer stocked, is a genuinely common way to lose a project.
10. Check the washing symbols.Superwash wool is machine washable; ordinary wool is not and will felt. This matters most for anything given as a gift.

Tips

• Compare yarns by metres per ball, not grams. Weight tells you very little.
• Check the dye lot on every ball, and buy them together.
• Buy one more ball than the pattern says. Running out is worse than a spare.

Common mistakes

• Starting with beautiful fluffy or variegated yarn — The stitch structure is invisible, so you cannot see errors, count rows or pick up a dropped stitch. Almost everyone who does this concludes they are bad at knitting.
• Buying balls of the same shade from different dye lots — Dye lots differ enough to show as a distinct line across the finished fabric, and it is only visible once the garment is knitted.

If it doesn't work

Questions people ask