Knitting Wool & Accessories

Besides wool, retail shops sell various knitting accessories such as knitting bags, needle rolls, row counters, stitch holders, patterns books or leaflets, yarns, crochet patterns, and many other associated items.

Knitting wool or yarn may be used undyed, or may be coloured with natural or artificial dyes. Most types of knitting wool will have a single uniform hue, but there is also a wide selection of variegated yarns. Variegated yarn types include heathered or tweed yarn with flecks of different colours, ombre yarn with light and dark shades of a single hue, Multi-coloured yarn with two or more distinct hues, Self-striping yarn with lengths of colour that will automatically create stripes in a knitted or crocheted object and marled yarn which is made from strands of different-coloured yarn twisted together.

Knitting wool may not necessarily be wool and is commonly referred to as yarn for that reason. Yarn can be made from any number of natural or synthetic fibres. Natural fibres, in addition to sheep’s wool, include cotton, alpaca, angora, mohair, cashmere, and silk. Synthetic yarns can be made from acrylic, nylon or rayon threads.

Accessories and ancillary tools used by knitters include a wide range of knitting needles, crochet hooks, stitch holders, scissors, yarn needles, stitch markers, point protectors and storage bags. Pattern books for knitting and crochet are most often published by a yarn manufacturer and will be specific to that range of yarns. Pattern books are popular for many knitted and crocheted items, with some being issued seasonally and in line with fashion trends, while others are classics and are reprinted from year to year.