Useful Info

Yarn Weight Chart

I found choosing the right yarn and substituting yarns for using in patterns to be confusing, particularly because I use yarns that I have bought on etsy, ebay, ravelry, online shops etc. This means that they all use different label systems so I came up with my yarn weight chart as a guide.

The gauge is measured over 4inches/10cm.

Yarn plies are confusing as they can be quite different.  Soft and fluffy or very tightly wound.

Please note that the chart is a guide, I am sure there are times when I will find a yarn that breaks the guidelines.  For example, I have sock in Superfine and Fine.  This is because some sock yarns are quite different in weight to others, and from knitting the yarns, I have found that some such as Zauberball are definitely Superfine while most knit up to the same tension as 4 ply.


Global

Superfine
Fine
Light
Medium
Bulky
Super Bulky
Number System

1
2
3
4
5
6
UK
Lace, Cobweb
2 Ply 
3 Ply
4 ply
sock baby
DK
Aran
Chunky
Super Chunky
US
Lace
Sock, Fingering
Sport
Light Worsted
Worsted
Bulky
Super Bulky
Needle size (mm)
2.25mm-4mm
2mm-
3.25mm
2.25mm-3.75mm
3.75mm-4.5mm
4.5mm-
5.5mm
5.5mm-
8mm
8mm and above
Needle size US

1-3
3-5
5-7
7-9
9-11
11 and above
Gauge

27-32sts
23-26sts
21-24sts
16-20sts
12-15sts
6-11sts

Needle Sizes



US
METRIC
UK
0
2mm
14
1
2.25mm
13

2.5mm

2
2.75mm
12

3mm
11
3
3.25mm
10
4
3.5mm

5
3.75mm
9
6
4mm
8
7
4.5mm
7
8
5mm
6
9
5.5mm
5
10
6mm
4
10 1/2
6.5mm
3

7mm
2

7.5mm
1
11
8mm
0




Sock Blockers


I treated myself to a beautiful set of sock blockers which are so cool.




They arrived incredibly quickly and I was able to use them right away as I had just finished hand washing my socks.



I read somewhere, that shampoo is great for hand washing wool socks so I tried it and it seems to work very successfully.  It was also very easy to rinse out.


Fixing Split Points

For a while now, I have been having a problem with a few of my wooden dpn's which along with my bamboo dpn's are what I use all the time for knitting.

The problem was a few of the birch wood needles had developed a split point which not only caused it to snag on every stitch that I knit but also gave me a blister on my finger.



So I decided that I needed to solve the problem or else it would mean buying replacement needles.

I bought a fine emery board in the pharmacy and a block of beeswax (used for waxing quilting thread).  I ran my finger over the point where it was split and snagging the yarn and then used the emery board to smooth the problem away, trying not to cause the point to become too sharp or one sided in the process.  Then I  rubbed the point of the needle on the wax and buffed it up using a buffing cloth for reading glasses.

It has been very successful and I can't tell which needles I have fixed when I am knitting with them.

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