Circular or traditional knitting needles, which are better?

Discover the advantages of circular knitting needles, an innovative tool that will allow you to create knitting projects more easily and quickly. Follow Imparare con Alicja, an expert teacher and knitter, on a journey to discover these techniques, ideal for both beginners and experts.

When I moved to Italy, way back in 1999, I was surprised to notice that Italian women used long needles for knitting.

The way of working was also different from what I knew. One needle had to be held under the right arm to free the right hand that wrapped the yarn from the ball around the needle. That technique, called traditional in Italy, seemed a bit tiring to me.

At that time there was a strange, for me, belief, that circular needles were used exclusively for making collars.

One day I went into a haberdashery and asked for circular needles with a long cable. Do you know what the saleswoman told me?

– Madam, there are no circular needles with a long cable. The cable is short because these needles are only used for making collars.

I was very perplexed. I tried to explain that it wasn't true, that much more could be done with circular needles. The saleswoman was not interested in my explanations, convinced that I was a foreign, inexperienced customer, who knew very little about knitting.

I started teaching the continental technique and the use of circular needles purely by chance. One day I spoke with a woman who, after surgery (she had breast cancer), had to completely give up knitting needles, because she could no longer hold a needle under her right arm. She was truly sorry.

I offered her knitting lessons with circular needles and the continental technique.

It happened more than 20 years ago, but I still remember today the joy I saw on her face when she rediscovered her passion.

– You changed my life, thank you! – these words of hers have remained in my heart.

I know how important it is to have a passion in life.

Today, even if the situation is different, because it is now known that it is more convenient to work with circular needles, some people continue to use long needles.

Why? I wouldn't know…

Some have tried and given up because working with the continental technique, at first, seems more difficult. It's just an impression, because everything we know how to do seems easy to us, everything we don't know how to do seems difficult. Do you agree?

It takes a bit of perseverance and you also have to accept the fact of finding yourself again, in the shoes of a beginner… This, perhaps, is the most difficult obstacle to accept.

If you are part of this group, I want to invite you to join me in the world of knitting made with circular needles.

Maybe in this short video, you will find something that will convince you 🙂

Next week I will present 2 video lessons, in which I will teach how to knit plain stitch, both with the traditional technique and with the continental technique.

See you soon

Alicja Kwartnik for Hircus Filati

P.S. I forgot… on the Hircus Filati website it is possible to have free access to my course on the continental technique and the use of circular needles.