By far the most common and popular size, if you’re a beginner, this is probably the size range you’ll start with, and a good needle set includes this size. You might remember this was perhaps the one you learned with! Used in conjunction with worsted weight yarn. US Size 9-11 Designed for use with the sport-weight yarn, or yarn weight category 2, these needles are still considered thin.

Japan sizing goes from 0-15 as the numbers get larger, but then once they’re past 15, it switches to metric sizing. Our wooden knitting needles consist of high quality birch wood. Birch wood is first of all a very strong material, which has made it possible to shape the tips as fine and sharp as possible. This makes it easier for you to get all the stitches when you knit. As an added bonus, knitting needles of birch are comfortable to knit with. They fit perfect in your hands and then they are almost silent.

A handy little guide to knitting needle sizes including size chart for US, European, and Japanese needles. 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.

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).

What is the best needle size for beginners?

If you don’t have a yarn label, you can calculate the yarn’s weight using wraps per inch (WPI), then choose your needle size from there. These are designed for lace or projects with intricate designs, used with very fine yarn. They’re also quite challenging to get your hands on because they’re used for particular tasks. US Size 1-3 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) 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?