Oh Susannah! Oh don't you cry for me!

Fancy sipping a mint julep on the screen porch with me this summer?

I've had several requests to make this pattern available, so here it is, at least the first installment. I'd like to grade this pattern for different sizes, but because I'm only one size (at least most of the time), I can't be too sure of getting it right. I really need some test knitters who are patient and kind. I work two jobs these days, so I can't properly conduct an organized test knit, where people have deadlines to finish (meaning I have to respond within a very short time to any questions). I'm not able to be monitoring Ravelry during working hours, so it's not really feasible to do this properly.

So, for the moment, at least, I'm making it available in one size: 36-38". If you'd like to make it in another size and you're not in a big hurry, please let me know and we can work on it together. :-)

Download PDF from my Ravelry store

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	6 (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