page_title: Knitting needle
section_title: Needle sizes and conversions
hierarchical_section_title: Knitting needle / Needle sizes and conversions
caption_attribution_description: English: Double pointed knitting needles in action. A fourth needle (not shown) is used to create new stitches while the remaining three needles hold the stitches together.
context_page_description: A knitting needle or knitting pin is a tool in hand-knitting to produce knitted fabrics. They generally have a long shaft and taper at their end, but they are not nearly as sharp as sewing needles. Their purpose is two-fold. The long shaft holds the active stitches of the fabric, to prevent them from unravelling, whereas the tapered ends are used to form new stitches. Most commonly, a new stitch is formed by inserting the tapered end through an active stitch, catching a loop of fresh yarn and drawing it through the stitch; this secures the initial stitch and forms a new active stitch in its place. In specialized forms of knitting the needle may be passed between active stitches being held on another needle, or indeed between/through inactive stitches that have been knit previously.
  The size of a needle is described first by its diameter and secondly by its length. The size of the new stitch is determined in large part by the diameter of the knitting needle used to form it, because that affects the length of the yarn-loop drawn through the previous stitch. Thus, large stitches can be made with large needles, whereas fine knitting requires fine needles.
context_section_description: In the UK, the metric system is used. Previously, needles 'numbers' were the Standard Wire Gauge designation of the wire from which metal needles were made. The origin of the numbering system is uncertain but it is thought that needle numbers were based on the number of increasingly fine dies that the wire had to be drawn through. This meant thinner needles had a larger number.
  In the current US system, things are opposite, that is, smaller numbers indicate smaller needles. There is an "old US system" that is divided into standard and steel needles, the latter being fine lace needles. Occasionally, older lace patterns will refer to these smaller needles in the old measurement system. Finally, there was a system used in continental Europe that predated the metric system. It is largely obsolete, but some older or reprinted patterns call for pins in these sizes.
caption: Four double-pointed needles in use. One double-pointed needle creates new stitches while the remaining needles hold stitches in place. This is called "knitting in the round".
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