Knitting Needle
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A knitting needle is a long stick or rod used as a tool in the manufacture of hand knitted fabric. The needle is used to reach through a knitting stitch in order to snag a bight — a length of yarn — and pull up a new stitch through the old one. Everything else about the tool, its pointed tip, its smooth shaft and its stop or cable at the far end, exists to make that one repeated action fast, even and reliable over thousands of stitches.
A knitting needle is a long stick or rod used as a tool in the manufacture of hand knitted fabric. The needle is used to reach through a knitting stitch in order to snag a bight of yarn and pull a length back through the stitch to form a new loop at the top of the current wale of stitches. The simplest requirements of knitting needles are that they must be smooth, thin and long enough to reach through a stitch and strong enough not to break while manipulating the bight of yarn. Knitting needles, commonly used in pairs, are the only essential tools for hand knitting (Thomas, 1938; Hiatt, 1988).
Overview
Knitting needles have also been called knitting sticks,
knitting pins, knitting wires, or simply
wires or rods (Rutt, 2003). Length and
thickness of the needles vary depending on the type of yarn
used (e.g., fine or thick) and the type of fabric to be
produced (e.g., firm or loose).
The most widely recognized form of knitting needle, probably invented in the mid 19th century, is usually called a straight needle. Straight needles are narrowed nearly to a point at one end and capped at the other with a knob or head (like the head of a straight pin), and are used almost exclusively for knitting flat two-dimensional fabrics like rectangles and squares. The needles are popular because the knob at the end of each needle prevents the stitches from inadvertently falling off the needles. Fictional depictions of knitting in movies, television programs, animation, and comic strips almost always show knitting done on straight needles. Both Wallace and Gromit and Monty Python, for example, show knitting being done with straight needles.
The oldest known knitting needles, still very much in use, are double-pointed needles. They are generally used to form tubular (coiled) fabrics such as socks and the bodies or sleeves of sweaters. As the name implies, double-pointed needles are tapered at both ends nearly to points. They are normally used in sets of four or five as depicted in a number of 14th century oil paintings, typically called Knitting Madonnas, depicting Mary knitting with double-pointed needles (Rutt, 2003). Typical 21st century double-pointed needles range from about 4 in. to 15 in. in length. Shorter needles are used for knitting socks and the fingers of gloves. Longer needles are used for nearly all other work, including sweaters, shawls and blankets.
Both tubular and flat knitting is also done on circular needles, today consisting of two pointed needles joined together by a flexible wire or length of nylon. Some manufacturers sell the two needles and the joining length of nylon separately. Different authorities, however, disagree on whether the needles should be thought of as a single needle or pair. Mary Thomas (1938) and June Hemmons Hiatt (1988) both imply that a circular needle (note the singular) consists of a pair needles (note the plural). Richard Rutt (2003), however, calls a circular needle (note the singular) a double-pointed needle (singular again), and so considers it a single needle. In any case, the two ends are used exactly like two needles, in the sense that the knitter holds one in each hand and knits as if having two.
Modern knitting needles are made of
bamboo, aluminum, steel,
wood, plastic, and
casein.
| Metric size (mm) | US size | UK / Canadian size |
|---|---|---|
| 2.0 | 0 | 14 |
| 2.25 | 1 | 13 |
| 2.75 | 2 | 12 |
| 3.0 | 11 | |
| 3.25 | 3 | 10 |
| 3.5 | 4 | |
| 3.75 | 5 | 9 |
| 4.0 | 6 | 8 |
| 4.5 | 7 | 7 |
| 5.0 | 8 | 6 |
| 5.5 | 9 | 5 |
| 6.0 | 10 | 4 |
| 6.5 | 10 |
3 |
| 7.0 | 2 | |
| 7.5 | 1 | |
| 8.0 | 11 | 0 |
| 9.0 | 13 | 00 |
| 10.0 | 15 | 000 |
| 12.0 | 17 | |
| 16.0 | 19 | |
| 19.0 | 35 | |
| 25.0 | 50 |
References
- Thomas, Mary. (1938). Mary Thomas's Knitting Book. Dover Publications. New York. (1972 Reprint Edition ISBN 0-486-22817-7)
- Rutt, Richard (2003). A history of handknitting. Interweave Press, Loveland, CO. (Reprint Edition ISBN 1-931-49937-3)
- Hiatt, June Hemmons. (1988). The principles of knitting: Methods and techniques of hand knitting. Simon and Schuster, New York.
Needle Definition (sewing)
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One Action, Repeated Ten Thousand Times
Knitting looks complex and is mechanically simple: every stitch is made by reaching a needle through an existing loop, snagging a bight of new yarn, and drawing that bight back through the loop to form a new loop, which then takes its place on the needle. The needle's design serves that cycle. The tip is tapered to enter a stitch without splitting the yarn. The shaft is smooth and of an exact, even diameter, because the shaft is the mold every new stitch is formed around — a thicker needle makes a bigger loop and a looser fabric, a thinner needle a smaller loop and a denser fabric. The far end either carries a stop that keeps stitches from sliding off, or, on a circular needle, a flexible cable that holds a large number of stitches in a compact curve.
Choosing needles is therefore choosing fabric. The same yarn knitted on different needle sizes produces cloth of different drape, density and dimensions, which is why knitters make gauge swatches: the needle, yarn and the individual hand together determine how many stitches and rows fill a measured square. Patterns specify a needle size as a starting point, but the swatch is the authority, and changing needles is the standard way to correct a gauge that comes out too tight or too loose. Material changes the feel of the work rather than the geometry: metal needles are slick and fast, wood and bamboo grip the yarn slightly and hold slippery fibers under control, and plastic offers a light, inexpensive middle ground.
Straight, Double-Pointed and Circular
Straight needles, sold in pairs with a point at one end and a knob at the other, are the traditional tool for flat pieces worked back and forth in rows — scarves, panels, blankets in sections. Double-pointed needles, short rods pointed at both ends and used in sets of four or five, hold small tubes of knitting — socks, mittens, sleeves and hat crowns — where a circle is too small for other methods. Circular needles, two short tips joined by a cable, knit both flat pieces (by working back and forth) and seamless rounds of any circumference, and the cable carries the weight of a large piece so the knitter's wrists do not.
Hand knitting with needles is the domestic counterpart of machine knitting, in which rows of hooked needles perform the same loop-through-loop action mechanically — the ancestor of the hand tool is visible in both. For the dictionary, the definition stays with the hand tool: a long stick or rod, pointed to enter stitches, sized to form them, and made in forms matched to the shape of the work. A pair of needles and a hank of yarn contain, between them, every garment knitting can make; the needle is the half of that partnership that sets the size of every stitch in the cloth.
Common Questions
What is a knitting needle?
A knitting needle is a long stick or rod used as a tool in the manufacture of hand knitted fabric. The needle reaches through a knitting stitch to snag a bight of yarn and draw a new stitch up and through the stitch on the needle.
What are the main types of knitting needles?
Hand knitting uses straight needles with a point at one end and a stop at the other, double-pointed needles with points at both ends for small rounds, and circular needles joined by a flexible cable for both flat and round knitting.
How are knitting needle sizes given?
Needle size refers to the diameter of the shaft, because the shaft forms the stitch. Sizes are stated in millimetres in most countries, while the United States uses its own numbering, so patterns and needles are matched by the millimetre measure.