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). This blog post is all about knitting needle sizes and conversion charts. Why is this so important to know? To help you decipher the world of knitting needle sizes, refer to the charts below! Knitting Needle Sizes Chart for US and UK A handy little guide to knitting needle sizes including size chart for US, European, and Japanese needles.

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 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. So, your first step should always, I repeat, always be knitting a gauge swatch to confirm you are knitting a satisfying fabric in line with your thoughts or the requirements of your pattern. what size knitting needles for beginnersSide note: The SWG was only implemented in 1884. Before that, it was the Birmingham Wire Gauge; keep that in mind when you follow historic patterns). 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.

This first knitting needle chart is broken down into four columns. The first column lists knitting needle sizes in millimeters (mm), which is how Australia (AU) and New Zealand (NZ) list their sizes. If you need to work out what size you should use for to knit a particular item, I recommend that you knit yourself a tension square or two. 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?

Knitting Needle Conversion Chart

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? 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.