Extra Tools for Knitting: Tapestry Needles

Hi, I'm Jen Lucas for the Knitting Circle. In this video, let's take a look at tapestry needles. There are many knitting notions that you might want to have in your knitting bag for when you are finishing up a project and tapestry needles is one of them. So let's go ahead and take a look at tapestry needles. As you can see there's a wide variety of tapestry needles to choose from. And you may, in your knitting patterns see them called a few different things. Commonly they're called a tapestry needle or yarn needle but you may also see them called as a darning needle or even a finishing needle. So I just wanted to take a look at a few different kinds and then you can decide which one would be best for you. I personally like a metal bent tipped tapestry needle. I find that for me this works the best for weaving in my ends. And I really like that bent tip but you can also have just a straight tipped one as well. And you can see that the end of this one is pretty dull. It's not very pointy. You can find ones that are pointy at the end. I don't usually like to use these because I find that they catch on the yarn in my project as I'm trying to weave in the ends, and I just personally don't like that. But you might try it and like it. There's also plastic yarn needles, like this one here. I do occasionally use these too. But I do find over time, sometimes they do get bent. So that's why I personally go with the metal but it's again, it's really up to you. And you'll notice too that with these different tapestry needles that the hole or eye where you put the yarn through, they're different sizes. So for example, for a swatch like this where I've used a thicker bulky yarn, you can see that the eye of this needle is pretty small. I probably still could get, yeah. I still can get the yarn through there but it is a little bit of a tight fit. So in this case, you might find that you have an easier time using a larger tapestry needle. On the flip side, if you had a project that was using a thinner yarn like a fingering weight yarn you would not want to use a tapestry needle that had a huge eye like this 'cause it's going to stretch out your stitches when you're trying to weave it through your project to weave in your end. I also have these finishing needles. You don't see these too often. But they are another type of tapestry needle or yarn needle that you can use to weave in the ends on your project. And so for this again, as you can see they come in different sizes. So you could use the right one for your yarn and you just put the yarn through and then you can use this to weave in the end of your project. Lots of different tapestry needles to choose from. As you can see, a lot of it really does come down to personal preference and finding the right tapestry needle for you. Some people like the straight tips. Some like the bent tip, plastic, metal. Really it's up to you. And what you like for your particular project. I'm Jen Lucas for the Knitting Circle. I hope that you enjoyed this video. Be sure to check out our website. We have lots of great video content for you.