If you’re beginning a project and you’re not sure which needle size you should be using, there are a few easy ways to find out. Circular needles are two needles connected by a long, flexible cable. This cable allows you to knit in a tubular shape, and is designed to support the weight of your stitches when knitting in the round. The longer the cable, the more stitches you can support. In the US, needle sizes start at 0 and increase to 50. However, in the UK, sizes start at 14 and go up to 000. This type of yarn is the most commonly-used amongst all types of projects. If you’re using medium-weight, Aran, or worsted yarn, you’ll probably require knitting needles sized between 3mm and 5.5mm. Medium-weight worsted yarn usually requires 3-5.5mm needles.

While these are general guidelines, you might vary your needle sizes to produce certain textures or effects, or to achieve a specific knitting gauge. In this section, we’ll go through each needle size and explain the types of yarn they’re typically used for. Chunky, Super Chunky, and Bulky Yarn A handy little guide to knitting needle sizes including size chart for US, European, and Japanese needles. Again, please understand that these are only general recommendations. Two different companies might call their yarn DK weight but that doesn’t mean that both should be knitted with needle size 6 for the best results. Does knitting needle length matter? Unlike Swiss cheese, these holes are precisely sized for measuring knitting needles! This is a standard plastic gauge for measuring knitting needle sizes.

If the needle slides in smoothly and sits snugly in the hole, then you’ve just identified your needle size. Mystery solved! Medium sizes are generally the best for beginners. This means you should look for a width size of six (4mm), seven (4.5mm), or eight (5mm). For length, a 10-inch needle is usually a good starter size because they’ll be small enough to handle easily. What happens if you use bigger knitting needles? Think of how Apple forced unique chargers and cables on their customers for two decades. Miss Lambert probably called her needle gauge “ Standard Filière” for very similar reasons – distinction. The Singer Corporation famously heralded this change towards international marketing around that time with their sewing machines ( source) with a kind of success that would dominate the industry for the whole century to come. Knitting needle sizes can be confusing. That’s because different countries have different ways of numbering their knitting needles.

Convert your US needles to metric sizes or vice versa. This knitting needle size chart covers the size equivalents for US, UK, European and an Older US system of needle sizing. The “Old” US needles are referenced from a Boye Needle Gauge chart noted in a 1942 publication. Because the metric measurements of UK sizes are different, it may help to know where you pattern originated. Blank entries indicate that there is no data available for that particular size and measurement. USSo in some parts, this chart is only an approximation. Still, you can easily see that a 4 mm knitting needle converts to a U.S. size 6. And knitting needles sold as 5 mm in Europe can be found as size 8 on the other side of the Atlantic. Knitting needle sizes explained A needle gauge is simply a thin piece of wood or plastic with holes of different sizes, markings, and a ruler. To find out what size your knitting needles are, just slot your needles into the holes until you find a match. Metric sizes are the easiest to convert to, and are most commonly found in patterns originating in Europe, Australia and New Zealand. US and Japanese sizes are almost identical, and UK sizes are also used in Canada. Explaining U.S. knitting needle sizes is a complicated topic and we have to delve a bit into history: With the popularization of knitting in the UK in the 18th century and the industrialization, the shift from handmade tools to mass-produced steel needles occurred. Needles were often also called wires because, by then, most dpns were indeed made out of durable steel wire. And thus they were measured in accordance with the standard wire gauge (SWG). Your personal tension: Are you a tight or loose knitter? Your knitting style and even the needle material (wood vs metal) will have a huge influence on your gauge.