40″ circulars

• Larger blankets
• Body of adult sweater in sizes 50″+
• Used for magic loop method

16″ circulars have smaller tips, as illustrated in the photo below:

This shorter length is what allows for a 16″ circumference – the regular tips would be too long and not allow for the circular to make a 16″ circle. This is also why interchangeable circular needle sets come in 24″+ lengths or you have to purchase a special 16″ only set (since the tips are different). You can learn more about interchangeable sets in this blog post.

Circular Knitting Needle Cord Lengths

These are good for socks, narrow sleeves, baby hats, and other projects with very small circumferences. They are the shortest needles you’ll find in the market. Since the cord is short, the needles also need to be very short. For projects requiring much smaller circumferences, double point needles would be ideal because it is very uncomfortable to knit using circular needles for these projects due to the needle head sizes.

For projects that are a little large for double-pointed needles, 16-inch cords are ideal especially for in the round knitting. Sample projects you can do with this cord length are the following:

• Hats for kids or grown-ups
• Booties and sweaters for babies
• Sleeves and Collars of adult sweaters
• Brims of hats

You can use 24-inch circular needles in almost all projects especially sweaters. If you want more space on the needles when knitting, you should stick to shawlettes (smaller shawls), flat knit sweaters in pieces, smaller cardigans, smaller adult pullovers that are knit in the round, and children’s cardigans and pullovers.

29-inch cord lengths are perfect for knitting medium-sized projects in flat or in the round knits. When you are following a pattern starting with 340 cast on stitches, these lengths would be the best option to start with. They are good fits for the body of sweaters, shawls, baby cardigans or blankets, and pullovers that are knit in the round.

This range of cord lengths are ideal for large or heavy projects knitted flat and projects with small circumferences knit using the magic loop. You will be more comfortable when knitting heavy projects using these cord lengths because all of the weight will be put onto the needle cord which allows for faster knitting. They are also suitable for larger circular shawls, cardigans, and pullovers (like men’s pullovers) that are knit in the round.

Unless your projects are particularly large (such as bed-size blankets), you won’t be needing long needles with these sizes that much. You can use them when knitting smaller projects knit in flat but you will have to deal with the extra cord length which can be very inconvenient.

Interchangeable Kits

When you are doing a lot of different projects requiring varying needle head sizes and cord lengths, having multiple needles can be very inefficient. The solution is to get interchangeable kits which contain needle tips in a wide range of sizes that you can attach to various cord lengths. They are very handy and gives you a lot of options for your knitting projects.

Circular Needles

Circular needles are the most versatile, allowing you to work on flat garments as well as knitting in the round. They’re especially helpful for working on larger items with a great number of stitches.

You can easily recognize circular needles. They have two straight needles joined together by a cord in the middle to create one continuous tool. If you tend to misplace knitting needles, using circular needles will help you make sure that you always have two needles of the same size.

When knitting in the round, you can use shorter circular needles to make small garments like hats. Longer circular needles (32 inches or more) can be used to make sweaters and ponchos in one continuous loop.

If you want to make smaller garments like socks and mittens, you can use the magic loop method with a 32-inch knitting needle to achieve the small round. This technique makes knitting in the round so much easier. In this way, long circular knitting needles are the most versatile tools that allow you to make any garment imaginable.

Working in the round with circular needles is arguably much easier and faster than using double-pointed needles since you don’t have to do as much adjusting the stitches or switching needles.

Many also prefer to use circular needles to help hold stitches. Especially for larger items, many of the stitches – and therefore much of the weight of the item – can be held on the cord. This means there is less weight on your wrists, making circular needles a more ergonomic choice.

Circular Needles Length – Pros and Cons

The length of circular needles is measured from tip to tip, so the total length includes the cord that holds the two needles together.

Circular needles come in so many different lengths, the shortest being 8.5 inches and the longest being around 60 inches. However, the three most popular sizes for circular needles are 16, 24, and 32 inches. We will cover the pros and cons for each approximate length below.

Short (~16 inches)	Medium (~24 inches)	Long (~32 inches+)
Pros	Very beginner-friendly and lightweight. Can be used to knit flat or in the round to make small garments like hats.	Beginner-friendly and lightweight. Can be used to knit flat garments or in the round to make bigger garments like sweaters.	Very versatile. Can knit bigger garments flat or in the round. Can make smaller garments in the round using the magic loop method.
Cons	Limited in what it can make because of its short length.	Still quite limited since it is not long enough for the magic loop method.	Less beginner-friendly.

The length circular corresponds to the circumference of your project

Circulars come in a handful of different lengths, with the most common being: 16″, 24″ and 32″. Below is an example of these 3 circular needle lengths:

Example 1: A kids sweater

If you are working on a kids pullover sweater whose finished body circumference is 26″, then you will want to use a 24″ circular. A 32″ circular would be too big since the circular shouldn’t be larger than the body’s circumference (of 26″), and a 16″ would be too small – the stitches would be really scrunched up.

Example 2: An adult hat

When using a circular needle for working flat, it’s similar but you can use a circular whose length is longer than the project’s width (within reason – using a 40″ long circular on a skinny scarf may not feel very comfortable!). But just like when working in the round, it’s not recommended to use a circular whose length is shorter than the project’s width (it just isn’t as comfortable and the stitches get too scrunched up).