Knitting with dpns

Is it necessary to have equal number of stitches on all three needles. Directions are for 36 but I used 40 for the ribbing on a mitten with the circular needle and want to switch now to dpns.

No you can have whichever number works for you, though it’s probably better if they’re nearly equal. For 40 sts, you can do 14, 12 and 14 or something.

Rarely do I have an equal number of stitches on each needle. The only exception is when I made a pair of socks, and it said to work with a specific number of stitches on one needle for awhile.

Most of the time, though, I don’t divide them equally. I’d much rather be knitting than counting, so I just divide the stitches up any old way (meaning, any way in which the stitches don’t fall off the DPNs).