Monday, May 01, 2006

Pointed Research

Did you know that some US 6 needles are 4.0 mm and some are 4.25 mm?

Yes, it's true. Clover circular identifies US 6s as 4.25 mm, while Skacel Addi and Bryspun identify US 6s as 4.0 mm.

Did you know it's safer to go with the mm size on Addi Turbos because their US sizing can be off?

Yes, it's true too.

How did you learn that real knitters use the metric system? Please share.

Impetus for learning, and above link, courtesy of email exchange with Wendy B. regarding my Fad-Classic swatch.
I hope she doesn't think I'm a total neophyte.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

LOL...well, I found out about the different sizes when I was doing a check-off pre-printed inventory of my needles, and found myself asking "Uhhh...which one of these US#2 boxes do I check?" That was back before I was a REAL knitter, y'know. :-)

Anonymous said...

I'd have to say I learned from this post! I guess I'm going to have to go ahead and start ignoring the English sizes; I always thought the metric ones made more sense (what is with the supposed half-size difference between 10.5s and 11s being so huge in metric?). Now that I know how flawed it is in other ways, I think I'll try to force my brain to switch over to ignoring the English numbers. Thanks for enlightening me!

Rain said...

I still think in the pre-metric Imperial sizes used in the UK. I still have to use my list to check what size I'm dealing with, even if the needles are all sold in metric these days. I have a lot of my mother's and grandmother's needles which I prefer to use rather than the newer ones so I need to function in both systems.

At least with metric it's a set standard.

Knittypants said...

I'm Canadian, so I just always went with metric. The mm just make more sense since it's an actual measurement rather than a name. Whenever I buy needles though, I always double check about 6 times to make sure the needle I am getting is what I think it is :-)

aija said...

Oy, I knew about the addis in small sizes (I call their 2.5mm "1.5US" and their 3mm "2.5US")... need to check out the 6's now :)

Theresa said...

Ugh. Metric. But US 1s and 2s are different in every brand, too.

gray la gran said...

i knew all of that, and yet i still managed to forget it when i started my elfine lace socks (and wondered why they were so big?) !