As a beginner, unless you are familiar with how the sizing schemes compare, it is sometimes difficult to work out which size knitting needle you should use. Perhaps, a knitting needle conversion chart make things a bit clearer for you? Knitting needle sizes can be confusing. That’s because different countries have different ways of numbering their knitting needles.

So 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 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? As seen below, these are Addi flexible double pointed knitting needles (DPNs) used for circular knitting. Notice the label indicates the knitting needle size and/or the millimeter (mm) measurement. There are so many different types of knitting needles. Really, it goes without saying that knitting needle sizes will vary from brand to brand and region to region. But I'm saying it anyway. Well, did you know that knitting needle sizes are not universal? It’s true. Different countries list their knitting needle sizes differently. This can cause confusion if you’re trying to decipher which knitting needle size you actually need for a knitting project.A handy little guide to knitting needle sizes including size chart for US, European, and Japanese 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. On top of that, different materials (e.g. wool, alpaca, or cotton) are also an important factor. Some of these might change their appearance drastically after the first wash. For circular knitting needles, the distinction is mainly a matter of preference. The longer the needle body, the more you can use the needles as leverage but the heavier they are. And of course, whenever you are knitting in the round, the stiff length of the needle itself defines the minimum diameter you can knit with these comfortably – except you are using the magic loop technique (e.g. you cannot knit a 10-inch circle with needles that are 4 in long each). How are knitting needles sized – a short history

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.

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If you look at Miss Lambert’s “ My knitting book” from 1845, you will find her marketing a “ Standard Filière” that bears a strong resemblance to the wire gauges used in the British industry at that time and follow the same systemization. Other authors, such as Hope, Mee, and Gaugain also advertised their own needle gauges. And this explains why the smallest knitting needles have the largest numbers in the UK. Source: Miss Lambert, My Knitting book; London, 1845, John Murray This knitting needle size conversion chart compares knitting needles in the US and UK, with crochet hook sizes thrown in for good measure! Metric (mm) I tend to use metric sizes as no matter where you are 2.0mm is still 2.0mm, and here in Australia most of the patterns you buy will list both the metric size and the equivalent United Kingdom and/or Canadian size.

The knitting stitch pattern: Typically, you will knit lace patterns using relatively large needles to create a lace like appearanges. Rib stitches, on the other hand, will benefit from using relatively small knitting needles. If the needle slides in smoothly and sits snugly in the hole, then you’ve just identified your needle size. Mystery solved!Of course, new materials (like celluloid) might also explain the departure from the SWG (as they required different machines and thus resulted in different sized needles). One also has to keep in mind that around 1910, commercial flights across the Atlantic were not available, and neither were telephone calls possible. Unlike today, knitters around the world were much less connected internationally and the world moved much slower and still a bit in isolation. Given the many immigrants (but also the rising economic power) from Germany, this mixture cannot be seen as all that surprising from a certain point of view – especially as it feels a little bit more intuitive that a larger number constitutes a larger size. It would be very limited to assume the U.S. only imported haberdashery from the UK. After all, companies like addi have been selling fine knitting needles since 1829! These days, I see an increasing switch among U.S. pattern designers to the metric system for similar reasons. Since the Imperial and the U.S. knitting needle size system still exist side by side, recommending size 6 needles can be very confusing as knitters from both sides of the pond are likely to buy a given pattern. A pattern typically only provides you with a size, aka the diameter of the needle. The rest is up to your own preference. Your knitting needles need to be long enough to accommodate all stitches without them being squeezed together so tightly that they fall off whenever you relax. That, of course, does not explain the conundrum of the US needle sizes. Why don’t they follow the Imperial system? To be quite honest, nobody really knows! It remains a fact, however, that from around 1900 US manufacturers started selling their own needle gauges – following no system at all. Or rather, the actual sizes followed (more or less) the Imperial system but the numbers were rising, much like the metric system popular in mainland Europe.