Knitting Yarn, Patterns & Supplies

Your knitting department, from first stitch to finished jumper

This is the home of everything knitting on LoveCrafts — the site that LoveKnitting customers will recognise, brought together with our crochet, cross stitch, and sewing departments under one roof. Yarns in every weight and fibre, thousands of patterns from independent designers and household-name brands, needles, notions, and the small tools that make the difference. If you're returning after a break or arriving for the first time, this page is a map of what's here and how to use it.

What you'll find

• Yarn: lace, 4 ply, DK, aran, chunky, and super chunky, in pure wool, merino, alpaca, cotton, linen, acrylic, mohair, and blends, from single skeins to project packs.
• Patterns: jumpers, cardigans, hats, scarves, shawls, socks, blankets, baby knits, toys and homeware, as instant PDF downloads.
• Needles: straights, fixed and interchangeable circulars, double-pointed sets and cable needles in bamboo, wood and metal.
• Notions: stitch markers, row counters, tape measures, blocking mats and pins, darning needles, project bags, and yarn winders.

Starting out

If you've never knitted, buy a ball of smooth light-coloured DK or aran and a pair of 4mm or 5mm needles. Dark and fluffy yarns hide your stitches, making learning harder than it needs to be. Cast on twenty stitches and knit every row until you have a garter stitch strip you're happy with — that's a scarf, and it teaches tension, edge stitches, and how to fix a dropped stitch. Then add in the purl stitch, and you can work stocking stitch, ribbing, and moss stitch, which covers most of what patterns ask for. A simple hat is the natural second project: it introduces working in the round and decreasing, and it's finished in a few evenings.

Reading a pattern and choosing a size

Every pattern lists the yarn, needle size, tension, finished measurements, and abbreviations before the instructions begin. Read the whole thing before casting on. Choose your size by the finished chest measurement rather than the label, and knit a tension square in the stated stitch pattern — 10cm square, washed and dried as you plan to treat the garment, then measured. If you have too many stitches to 10cm, go up a needle size; too few, go down. It's twenty minutes that saves a wasted month.

Choosing yarn and how much to buy

Weight determines gauge and drape; fibre determines behaviour. Wool is elastic, warm, and blocks into shape, so it suits garments, cables, and lace. Cotton and linen are cool and inelastic, better for summer tops and homeware, and they need a firmer tension. Acrylic is durable and easy to care for, ideal for baby knits, toys, and blankets that will be washed frequently. Buy all the yarn for a project at once and check dye lots. Rough guides: a DK adult jumper needs around 1,200–1,600m, a hat 100–150m, a pair of 4 ply socks about 400m, a throw 1,500m and up.

Downloading and using PDF patterns

Digital patterns are delivered as PDFs. They arrive in your account library, so you can print them, keep them on a tablet beside your chair, or come back to them years later. Free patterns download instantly, which means you can decide to knit something at eight o'clock and be casting on by half past.

Finishing and looking after knitwear

Block everything. Wet or steam blocking evens out stitches, opens lace, and makes seaming far easier. Wash woollens by hand or on a wool cycle, press out water in a towel, dry flat, and reshape while damp. Store folded rather than hung, and keep leftover yarn for repairs.