More than you probably want to know about knitting needles

I've been absent for awhile because my laptop was in the shop.  I've never brought a computer in for servicing before, I was a bit wary, but it was well worth it.  The crazy loud noises that it was making before are now gone, and I upgraded my hard drive while it was under the knife, so I've got all this extra space now!  Whohoo!

So now I'm back to scanning and posting patterns every day.  Have a look over at Etsy for the newest ones.

Now to the topic at hand... knitting needles.

There are heaps of different types of needles, a few of them shown in the photo above.  I'm fortunate to have received as a birthday gift from my husband a few years ago a set of the Options Interchangeable Needles from Knit Picks.  That's what you see in the upper left and right with the knitting in white yarn on it.  This is a wonderful set, and basically covers the needles you would need for most knitting projects.  I had started knitting life with the Denise Interchangeable Knitting Needle Kit, which I also love and still use, but I've lent it out to a friend right now.

I'm so used to knitting on circular now (because interchangeable needles are circular) that even when I have straight needles of the correct size I'll use circular if I can.  When I happen to use straight needles, like when I'm teaching someone on their needles or showing my daughter on her kid needles, I embarrass myself  at the end of each row by dropping the right hand needle on the floor.

If you didn't already know, knitting needles are defined by their diameter.  And because it's fun to confuse people, different countries use different sizes to describe their knitting needles.  In the US, sizes go from size 0 (small) up to 15 or higher (large).  The numbers seem to be fairly arbitrary.  I started and learned on the American system, so these numbers kind of make sense to me (especially the part where the smaller the number, the smaller the needle).

But now I'm in New Zealand, and most of the patterns I have for sale were published in New Zealand.  The ones that aren't originally from New Zealand are British patterns.  New Zealand used the British (UK) numbering for their needles in the old (vintage) days.  Now they all tend to use metric sizing.  The most confusing part for me of UK numbering is that the bigger the number, the smaller the needle.  That just doesn't make sense.  But it is what it is, and I am constantly checking needle conversion charts like this one over at Yarn Forward.

I also use the handy needle gauge at the back of my Knitter's Companion.

You slip the needle through for a good guesstimate as to the size of the needle.  And can I just comment how funny it is that my browser's automatic spell checker, you know, that puts the dotted red line under misspelled words, it doesn't have a problem with the word "guesstimate" which is so not a real word.  Anyways, one side of the gauge has the American sizes (seen above) and the other side has the metric and English (British, UK, Canadian, New Zealand, etc.) sizes (see below).

 

This needle gauge is nice to have, but as every single pattern in the history of knitting will tell you, don't count on it, or any knitting needle size or number to give you the right tension.  To be sure of your results, knit a gauge swatch.