Saturday, October 4, 2014

Crochet Hook and Knitting Needle Size Conversions

I recently ordered a couple of sets of 4" DPNs. I don't normally knit a lot of things that require little bitty DPNs, but I do knit a lot of Japanese patterns. A common stitch in these patterns is the wrapped stitch. You have to use a cable needle to do these. You knit across a certain number of stitches, then move them from the right-hand needle to a cable needle, wrap the working yarn around the stitches two or more times, then move them all back to the right-hand needle. It's cumbersome and slow, and I always feel particularly uncoordinated when I'm moving the stitches from the right-hand needle to the cable needle. I got the bright idea that I could knit the stitches to be wrapped directly onto the cable needle, so I don't need to move the stitches from the right-hand needle to the cable needle at all. Of course, that requires having a short needle of the right size.
Once I got the needles, I wanted to make a sort of case for them, because some of them came in little cellophane bags, and the others came in a case that's unnecessarily large and unwieldy. I made a sort of roll-up holder for my crochet hooks a long time ago and used a font stitch on my sewing machine to mark the sizes like this:


Here it is rolled up, in case you're curious:



I wanted to mark the sizes for my DPN case too. The sizes marked were a little strange, so I went off to the Internet to find a size conversion chart. I've done this many times in the past, and it's always a little frustrating. Some charts don't include all the sizes and sometimes there are discrepancies between charts. I also have trouble finding charts that have "the big four" (at least for me): metric, US, UK, and Japanese sizes. That set me off on a quest to put together a complete chart. I relied pretty heavily on Phretys' most excellent chart for the Japanese sizes, but I filled in a few sizes that weren't there. I compared many charts and then searched for actual needles and hooks for sale to verify the sizes. I found to my surprise that the larger crochet hooks vary in some significant ways among manufacturers. It's a good thing to know, although I generally shy away from heavy yarn.


Here's the result of my research. I hope it might be helpful. 
Note: ミリ: Japanese jumbo sizes for knitting needles and crochet hooks are sized by mm


Knitting Needles
 
Crochet Hooks
Metric
US
UK
Japan*
 
Metric
US
UK
Japan
0.5
8/0
24
 
 
0.5
 
 
14
0.75
6/0
22
 
 
0.55
 
 
13
0.875
 
20
 
 
0.6
16
 
12
1.0
5/0
19
 
 
0.75
14
 
10
1.25
0000
16
 
 
0.85
13
7
9
1.5
000
15
 
 
0.9
 
 
8
1.75
00
 
 
 
0.95
 
 
7
2.0
0
14
 
 
1.0
12
6 ½
(1/0)
2.1
 
 
0
 
1.1
11
6
 
2.25
1
13
 
 
1.25
 
 
4
2.4
 
 
1
 
1.3
10
5 ½
 
2.5
1 ½
 
 
 
1.4
9
5
 
2.7
 
 
2
 
1.5
8
4 ½
2
2.75
2
12
 
 
1.65
7
4
 
3.0
2 ½
11
3
 
1.75
 
 
0
3.25
3
10
 
 
1.8
6
3 ½
 
3.3
 
 
4
 
1.9
5
3
 
3.5
4
 
 
 
2.0
steel  4
14 (steel 2 ½)
2/0
3.6
 
 
5
 
2.1
steel 3
steel 2
 
3.75
5
9
 
 
2.25
1/B (steel 2)
13 (steel 1 ½)
 
3.9
 
 
6
 
2.3
 
 
3/0
4.0
6
8
 
 
2.5
 
12
4/0
4.2
 
 
7
 
2.75
2/C (steel 1)
steel 1
 
4.5
7
7
8
 
3.0
 
11
5/0
4.8
 
 
9
 
3.25
3/D (steel 0)
10 (steel 0)
 
5.0
8
6
 
 
3.5
4/E (steel 00)
9
6/0
5.1
 
 
10
 
3.75
5/F
 
 
5.4
 
 
11
 
4.0
6
8
7/0
5.5
9
5
 
 
4.25
G
 
 
5.7
 
 
12
 
4.5
7
7
7.5/0
6.0
10
4
13
 
5.0
8/H
6
8/0
6.3
 
 
14
 
5.5
9/I
5
 
6.5
10 ½
3
 
 
6.0
10/J
4
10/0
6.6
 
 
15
 
6.5
10 ½/K
3
 
7
 
2
ミリ7
 
7.0
 
2
ミリ7
7.5
 
1
 
 
8.0
11/L
0
ミリ8
8.0
11
0
ミリ8
 
9.0
15/N
00
ミリ9
9.0
13
00
ミリ9
 
10.0
16/P
000
ミリ10
10.0
15
000
ミリ10
 
15.0
 
 
ミリ15
11.0
17
 
 
 
15.75
Q
 
 
12.0
 
 
ミリ12
 
16.0
Q
 
 
15.0
 
 
ミリ15
 
19.0
S
 
 
16.0
19
 
 
 
20.0
 
 
ミリ20
19.0
35
 
 
 
Notes: The larger sizes vary by brand, with some
sizes only available from certain makers.
Sizes in the table are from Boye.
Differences are noted below:
Susan Bates: L 8.0, M 9.0, N 10.0, P 11.5
Lion Brand: 13/N 9.0, 15/P 10.0, 19/Q 15.75
20.0
 
 
ミリ20
 
25.0
50
 
ミリ25
 
30.0
 
 
ミリ30
 
*Japanese sizes also apply to
Tunisian crochet hooks
 
 
 





4 comments:

  1. Lovely roll. The numbers look wonderful on the black background

    ReplyDelete
  2. The joy of a nice sewing machine! It has letters as one of the "fancy" stitches. :-) Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  3. sjames1994@yahoo.comDecember 27, 2014 at 3:13 PM

    Lovely workmanship and it seems terribly useful. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete