This is such a personal thing and there are a number of options that you can choose from. You may even choose to use different options for different projects - all depending on what you feel most comfortable with and what suits the project. So, what are the options.
1: One single circular needle. Sizing of the circular needle will range from 20cm - 150cm. All depends on the project you are working on. I even use these for straight needle knitting.
2: Addicrazy Trio. Can be used instead of a 20-25cmm circular needle or a set of DPN's. Needle sizing ranges from 2.00mm-5.00mm. Double-pointed needles with a twist - or flexibility rather! The latest way to knit socks. The double-pointed knitting needles have a short section of cord in the middle of each one, allowing it to bend. With this 3-piece set of flexible knitting needles even really small diameter pieces can be knitted very easily. For knitting in the round, the stitches are distributed over two needles and the third needle is used for knitting - meaning only two needle changes per row.
3: Two circular needles With this technique half of your stitches are on one needle and the other half on the other needle. Especially good when you are knitting a garment as a single piece, rather than individual pieces. With this knitting method, you divide your stitches evenly between two circular needles and arrange them to form a circle. You knit the first half of the stitches using both needle tips of the front circular, and then knit the second half of the stitches using both needle tips of the back circular. In this way, you knit in a spiral around the outside of your work, while each set of stitches remains on the same circular needle.
4:Magic Loop Technique: One single circular needle of 60cm /80cm this single circular is used instead of double pointed needles. Using longer-than-usual circular needles, you can knit projects even with very small circumferences, like wee little socks, crowns of hats, cuffs of sleeves… the list goes on! With this method, you pull out a loop of cable to divide your stitches, usually into two equal parts. Once you divide your stitches, you can use the free needle tip to knit across half of the stitches. You then rotate the project and work the remaining stitches.
5. Double Pointed Needles: The oldest method of knitting in the round involves using double-pointed needles (dpns). They generally come in sets of 4 or 5 or 6. After you cast on the desired number of stitches for your project on the appropriate-length needle. You then distribute the cast-on stitches evenly among three/four needles. You use the remaining needle to knit the stitches.
More information and u-tube tutorials on the use of these circular needle techniques can be found by googling them. You can also attend one of our sock tutorials and prior to attendance send an email to the shop letting us know which technique you would like to learn.