Buying Knitting Supplies in St. Louis
Revised September 30, 2026
What type of yarn is best for beginners knitting?
A smooth, light-colored, medium-weight yarn. Look for worsted or aran weight (a 4 in the little ball symbol on the label) in wool or a wool blend. Yarn this thick shows each loop, forgives wobbly tension, and will not split the way loosely plied or fuzzy yarns do. Acrylic works fine too.
Keep reading ↓Saturday morning, a kitchen table in Foristell. A ten-year-old has watched one too many videos of somebody finishing a scarf in what looks like twenty minutes, and now she wants in. Grandma digs a pair of needles out of the hall closet, along with half a ball of something dark and fuzzy that’s been in the same bag since who knows when. An hour later nobody can see a single stitch. The yarn’s split twice. The kid’s close to tears.
Bad luck? Not really. Wrong supplies. That fuzzy navy yarn would test a knitter with thirty years behind her, and those skinny needles belonged to a sock project from another decade. Swap in the right ball and the right pair, and the very same afternoon goes a whole lot better.
Here’s what to buy for a first project and why: the yarn weight, fiber and color that make learning easier, the needle size and material that won’t fight you, the little tools people forget, and what a local yarn shop actually gives you compared with a big-box aisle. No brands. No prices. Just what belongs in the basket.
What type of yarn is best for beginners knitting?
A smooth, light-colored, medium-weight yarn. Look for worsted or aran weight (a 4 in the little ball symbol on the label) in wool or a wool blend. Yarn this thick shows each loop, forgives wobbly tension, and will not split the way loosely plied or fuzzy yarns do. Acrylic works fine too.
Why medium weight makes learning easier
Weight means thickness, not how heavy the ball feels in your hand. Lace and fingering yarns are thin as thread and pair with tiny needles, so every mistake hides and every row seems to take forever. Super bulky is the opposite problem. It knits up fast, sure, but it’s stiff on the needles and awkward for small hands. Worsted and aran sit right in the middle.
That middle ground matters more than people expect. With a medium yarn on medium needles, you can actually watch a knit stitch form, count your rows, and spot the exact moment something went sideways. Beginners learn by seeing. So give them yarn they can see.
Why pick a light color?
Dark yarn eats stitches. Navy, black, deep brown and charcoal look great in a finished sweater, but on the needles they blur into one shadowy lump, especially under a kitchen light after supper. Cream, pale gray, light blue, soft yellow, a gentle pink: any of these shows every loop clearly. You’ll catch a dropped stitch before it runs three rows down.
Solid colors help too. Variegated and self-striping yarns are fun, and kids adore them, but the shifting colors can hide the very stitch structure you’re trying to learn.
Save the rainbow skein for project two.
Wool, acrylic or cotton?
Each fiber behaves differently in your hands. Wool has a little stretch and bounce, so it forgives uneven tension and slides along the needle without much fuss. It’s warm, and it holds its shape. A wool blend, often mixed with acrylic or nylon, keeps most of that give and usually washes more easily. Plenty of teachers reach for smooth wool or a wool blend first.
Acrylic is the easy-to-find, easy-care option. It comes in just about every color there is and tosses in the washer, which matters for anything a kid will wear, chew or drag across the yard. Some acrylics feel squeaky on the needles, though, and a few split more than you’d like. Squeeze several. Pick the one that feels soft and tightly twisted.
Cotton’s the tricky one. It has almost no stretch, so every wobble in your tension shows, and your hands can tire out working it. It’s wonderful for dishcloths and summer tops. Most people find it easier as a second or third yarn, not the first.
Yarns to skip for now
Leave these on the shelf for a while: fuzzy mohair and eyelash yarns, anything with loose plies that separate when you poke them, very slippery silk or bamboo-fiber yarn, and novelty yarns with bobbles, sequins or ribbons. They aren’t bad yarns. They’re just hard to learn on, and a frustrating first project is exactly how knitting needles end up back in the hall closet for another ten years.
How do you read a yarn label?
The paper band around a skein tells you nearly everything: weight category, fiber content, length, suggested needle size, gauge, care instructions and dye lot. Learn to read those seven details and you can shop for any pattern with confidence, even in an aisle where every ball looks more or less the same.
The weight number and the needle size
Many labels carry a small yarn-ball icon with a number from 0 to 7. A 4 means medium, the worsted and aran family. Close by you’ll usually find a needle icon with a suggested size in US numbers, millimeters or both. Treat it as a starting point, not a commandment. Your own tension decides the final fit.
Yardage and gauge
Length is listed in yards, meters or both, right beside the weight of the ball. Your pattern tells you how many yards it needs. Compare those numbers instead of counting balls, because two skeins that look identical on the shelf can hold very different lengths of yarn.
Gauge usually shows up as a tiny square with numbers along its edges, meaning so many stitches and rows across a set width. For a scarf or a dishcloth, it barely matters. For a hat or a sweater that has to fit an actual human head or body, it matters a lot, and that’s when knitting a small test swatch pays for itself.
Care symbols and dye lot
Care symbols look like laundry tags because that’s what they are. Hand wash, machine wash, no dryer, lay flat. Superwash wool has been treated so it can go in the machine, while regular wool can felt and shrink with hot water and agitation. For a baby blanket or a pair of kids’ mittens, that’s worth a second look.
Then there’s the dye lot. It’s a code, usually printed near the color name, that tells you which batch the yarn came from. Two lots of the same shade can look slightly different side by side, and you’ll notice it right in the middle of a scarf. Buy all the yarn for one project from one lot, plus an extra ball if you’re unsure. Coming back later is a gamble.
Two rows in and somebody’s hungry. Is there even a St. Louis hot dog?
What size needles should a beginner start with?
A US size 8, which is 5 millimeters, is the classic starter needle for worsted-weight yarn, and sizes 7 through 9 all work. Pick a length you can hold comfortably, and choose wood or bamboo if you’re worried about stitches sliding off. Match the needle to the yarn label, then adjust if your fabric feels stiff.
Too tight? Go up a size. If the fabric looks loose and holey, like a fishing net, go down one. That’s the whole trick, and nobody gets it perfect on the first try.
Straight or circular?
Straight needles are what most people picture: two sticks, each with a point on one end and a stopper on the other. They’re simple and easy to understand. Circular needles are two short tips joined by a flexible cable. You can knit back and forth on them just like straights, and the weight of the project rests in your lap instead of pulling on your wrists.
Either one’s fine for a first scarf, honestly. Kids and smaller adults sometimes do better with shorter needles, since long ones bump elbows, couch arms and little brothers. Circulars also pack and travel better, which comes up again further down.
Wood, bamboo or metal?
Material changes how the yarn moves. Bamboo and wood have a little grip, so stitches stay put while your hands figure things out. Metal is slick and fast, which experienced knitters love and new ones often don’t. Plastic and resin land somewhere in between. There’s more on this further down, but here’s the short version.
Grippy first. Slick later.
What does a first knitting kit actually need?
Less than the craft aisle suggests. A first kit needs one or two balls of medium-weight yarn, a matching pair of needles, a blunt yarn needle for weaving in ends, a few stitch markers, small scissors and a tape measure. Add a simple pattern and a bag to hold everything, and you’re set.
The yarn needle is the one people forget. It’s a thick, blunt needle with a big eye, sometimes sold as a darning needle, and you’ll use it at the end of every project to hide the loose tails. A sharp sewing needle splits the yarn. A blunt one slips between the stitches instead.
Stitch markers are little rings or clips that ride on the needle or hang in the fabric. They mark the start of a round, a spot where the pattern changes, or the row where you began a decrease. In a pinch, a loop of scrap yarn in a contrasting color does the same job. Kids love the colorful ones. They also lose them. Buy extras.
Any small, sharp scissors will do for snipping yarn. A soft, flexible tape measure beats a metal one because it curves around a hat brim or a sleeve. One optional extra earns its spot, too: a small crochet hook. It’s the easiest way to catch a dropped stitch and pull it back up where it belongs.
What about all-in-one kits?
Boxed beginner kits can make a nice gift. Some are great. Others pair a novelty yarn with the wrong needle size, or toss in tools that won’t hold up past the first project. If it’s a birthday present, open the box a few days early if you can and check two things: the yarn’s smooth and medium weight, and the needles match its label.
Building your own kit takes a bit longer, but it’s more fun, and you know exactly what’s inside. For a family learning together, one shared pouch of notions plus separate yarn and needles for each person keeps the kitchen table from turning into a single giant tangle by Sunday night.
Is a local yarn shop worth it over a big-box aisle?
For a true beginner, often yes. A local yarn shop lets you touch the yarn, ask a real person which weight fits your pattern, and get help when a project goes wrong. Many run classes and casual knit nights. A big-box aisle wins on convenience and hours, and plenty of knitters happily use both.
What a yarn shop usually offers
People who work at an independent yarn shop tend to be knitters themselves. They can glance at a tangled mess and tell you what happened, show you a cast-on at the counter, or steer you toward a yarn that suits the pattern you printed out. Many will wind a skein into a ball for you, too. Small thing. Saves a lot of grief.
Classes and knit nights vary from shop to shop, so ask. A beginner class usually walks you through casting on, the knit stitch, the purl stitch and binding off. A knit night is looser: folks bring whatever they’re working on, chat, and help each other out. Somebody might drive in from Jerseyville or Elsberry just for the company, and for a nervous learner, a room full of patient people beats any video.
Where the big-box aisle makes sense
Chain craft stores and general retailers stock plenty of acrylic and acrylic-blend yarn in medium weights, along with basic needles and notions. They’re handy when you need one more ball on a Sunday evening. The trade-off is help. Staff may not knit, and the choice of natural fibers usually runs narrower. Shopping for other craft gear as well? Our guide to where to buy craft supplies in St. Louis covers the bigger picture.
How to walk in as a total beginner
Bring your pattern, or at least a photo of what you want to make. Say it’s your first project. Ask what weight, fiber and needle size they’d pair with it, then ask to feel two or three options. If a shop makes you feel silly for not knowing, that tells you something too. The good ones remember exactly what it was like to start.
How do you keep a first knitting project affordable?
Start small and buy tools only as you need them. A dishcloth, a headband or a simple scarf uses one or two balls of yarn and a single pair of needles. Borrow what you can, skip the deluxe kits until you know the hobby sticks, and let that first project show you what you actually want.
Yarn is where the money goes, so choose a project that fits your budget. A chunky blanket sounds cozy until you count how many balls it takes. A hat or a cowl gets you a real finished piece without a heavy basket at checkout, and you’ll learn nearly as much making it.
Ask around before you buy a thing. Plenty of families have a bag of old needles and half-used yarn tucked away somewhere, and somebody in your circle probably knits. Estate sales and church rummage sales out around Cedar Hill and New Melle sometimes turn up entire stashes. Check needles for bends and yarn for a musty smell before you haul it home.
Some people fall hard for this hobby, though, and start turning out more hats than they have heads to put them on. If that’s you a year from now, how to price and sell handmade crafts in St. Louis is a good place to start thinking it through.
Ready to shop? Browse knitting supply shops across the St. Louis metro on St Louis Near Me Directory, call ahead to ask about beginner classes or knit nights, and bring your pattern along.
If you’re the shop, being the one people and AI name first is the game when a brand-new knitter asks where to find soft worsted wool and somebody patient enough to show them a cast-on, so list your yarn shop.
Frequently asked questions
Should a beginner knit or crochet?
Either works, so pick the one that makes the thing you want. Crochet uses a single hook and keeps just one live loop at a time, which many people find easier to fix. Knitting uses two needles and makes a stretchier, drapier fabric that suits sweaters and socks. Torn? Try a short lesson in each.
Should I get bamboo or metal knitting needles?
For a beginner, bamboo is usually the safer bet. Its slight grip keeps stitches from sliding off while you learn tension, and it feels warm and light in the hand. Metal needles are slick and quick, which helps once you’re comfortable. Many knitters end up owning both and choosing by yarn: grippy needles for slippery yarn, slick ones for sticky.
What to look for when buying knitting needles?
Match the size to your yarn label first. Then check the tips, since medium points are easier than very sharp or very blunt ones. On circulars, look for a smooth join where tip meets cable so stitches don’t snag. Choose a length that feels comfortable, and run a finger along the needle to check for rough spots.
What is the best knitting needle set for a beginner?
Keep it simple. A single straight or circular pair in US 8, which is 5 millimeters, covers most first projects in worsted yarn. Once you’re hooked and trying different patterns, an interchangeable set with several tip sizes and cables often makes more sense than buying pair after pair. There’s no need for the big set on day one.
Where to buy yarn now that Joann’s is closing?
Joann closed all its stores in 2025, so plenty of St. Louis knitters had to find a new routine. Independent local yarn shops make a great first stop, and other big-box craft chains still carry yarn and needles. Online retailers ship nearly anything, and secondhand stashes from estate sales, thrift stores and friends can stretch a tight budget.
Why is knitting making a comeback?
People want a break from screens, and knitting gives restless hands something to do besides scrolling. It’s calming, it’s portable, and it ends with something real you can wear or give away. A handmade gift often means more than a store-bought one. And knit nights turn a quiet hobby into a reason to see people.
Will TSA confiscate knitting needles?
Usually not. TSA generally allows knitting needles in carry-on bags, but the final call belongs to the officer at the checkpoint. Circular needles and bamboo or wood needles tend to draw less attention than long metal straights. Keep any small scissors under four inches, and thread a scrap of yarn through your live stitches so you can save your work just in case.
How long does it take to learn to knit?
Many people can cast on and work the knit stitch in a single afternoon, especially with someone showing them. Even tension takes longer, often a few projects. Keep practice sessions short and frequent, particularly with kids, and don’t rip out every wobble. A first scarf that looks a little homemade is still a scarf, and it still keeps a neck warm.
Written by a dedicated team of St. Louis locals who live, work, and play right here in the St. Louis metro. Founder Lane Forman and team are committed to building the region’s most trusted directory by verifying listings and connecting local businesses with loyal customers across Missouri and Illinois.