Needle Size

What size needles would I need for a pattern that requires 150 stitches using sportweight or DK weight wool? I have 10" but I can see they won’t be big enough.

I use circular knitting needles when I have a larger project. You can hold a lot of stitches and helps with the weight of the whatever you are knitting.

I was wondering about circulars to be honest. I thought they were only for knitting in the round, so I read Amy’s knitting guide here and she says you can use them either way. I want to knit a cowl. Thanks for the advice.

[SIZE=“3”]I used to use straight needles for my scarves.
Then one day I discovered circulars, that’s what I use for everything I knit now. [/SIZE] :slight_smile:

I gave away all my straights and do all my knitting on circs. And I can never leave a needle home!

I haven’t used straight needles in years. Only use my flexible cable Options.

Did you ever drop a needle and have to go retrieve it from the under your chair or in the cushions? Using circs, that dropped needle is on a leash, won’t get lost, is easy to retrieve.

Or under an airplane seat two row away or in a theater in the dark? Didn’t happen to me, but a few friends. :teehee:

Is this what you meant butler? Or did you mean actual needle size? Or cable length?

I’ve given away my straight needles, too. The circulars can be used for all kinds of knitting including Magic loop for small circular knitting as well plain, old knitting back and forth. Much easier.

Ooh, bad English from the English lady! :roflhard:

Should have asked about needle length, not size, silly me. Sounds like I should be looking at a set of circulars then I think. Thanks for the input everyone. :grphug:

[SIZE=“3”]OMG I did that more times than I care to remember.
There were a couple (well more than a couple) of times,
I spent more time looking for the stray needle than knitting. :aww: [/SIZE]

This is a serious question. In England, would your wording have been clearly understood as the length of the needles? I have a friend in Canada (not a knitter) who promises me I could learn Canajun (her word!) quickly. I’ve found some language use differences that have had me wondering; i.e. her hydro bill I took to be a water bill, not electric, and asked her how much water did she use? She was puzzled then! It’s not that one is right and the other wrong, I’m glad she’s tolerant and explains to me when I misunderstand. Having lived in the U.S. she seems to not have that problem with me. I find the differences in the “same” language fascinating.

In all honesty if I wasn’t talking about knitting then yeah, size could equal length… like in the diy store and they ask you what size do you want, you could say I need a 4ft long piece, etc.

But in knitting, I think they would also equate size with needle size not length.

It’s an interesting ole’ thing this language of ours. Through blogging I also have friends in Australia and South Africa and we can easily catch each other out, or have them say “I have absolutely no idea what you just said”!

I would have also taken hydro to mean something with water too!! Dang Canucks! Sure she’s not French Canadian!! :slight_smile:

Thanks, Brenda. No, to the best of my knowledge she’s not French Canadian. She doesn’t [I]speak[/I] French. I love the language differences because they are so interesting to me. I used to talk to someone online who’d tell me he was having choccy biscuits. Took me a while to figure out it was chocolate cookies. I have begun to think [I]sweater [/I]when I see [I]jumper[/I] in the right context and not wonder why someone’s talking about a sleeveless dress to be worn over a shirt or blouse. Now I’m trying to remember what David in Sydney called the ribbing on a sweater bottom. LOL Acrylic wool still gets me. I know we in the U.S. have terminologies that send others for a loop. I don’t like the language differences when they lead to misunderstandings and hurt feelings.

Oh yeah, biscuits instead of cookies, muffins are buns or their fancy name is now cupcakes. People always tell me about English muffins but there’s no such thing in England!! I’ve been accused of lying about it, lol!

I have to bite my tongue in when I want to say jumpers… and let’s not get started on the spelling!! You might have noticed that I still use the letter “u” in words like colour! These days, I see so many red lines for bad spelling in computer documents that I don’t know if my spelling is truly bad or if it’s just written in English. My spelling has actually gone to pot because of it!

Spell check…before spell check I was a much better speller. I notice the U in words like colour and sometimes that’s what clues me in that a book I’m reading is not set in the U.S. The so-called extra U doesn’t bother me. I feel we’re losing something as things become more standardized across the globe but I guess we’re gaining things too. In a way I cherish our differences when they don’t mean that we want to do each other harm. I hope you can somehow manage to spell as you need to for work or whatever but still maintain a degree of English-ness in your English. It’s part of who you are. I almost forgot, I guess there’s really no such thing as French bread either.

Yeah, jumper confused me for a loop the first few times I read it. Someone in here referred to a “boot sale” once. I figured she meant shoes and was considering moving the post till she mentioned yarn. It was a trunk sale as in a parking lot where people had their car trunks open selling odds and ends. :teehee:

Yep, the British equivalent of your garage sale I suppose. Most car boot sales are quite large, organised affairs, but you’d typically bring some portable tables to place your items on rather than sell directly out of your car. But your car is still right beside you to make loading and unloading easy.

That’s a flea market.

I’ve come across references to a tag sale which I’ve deduced is what here on the west coast is a garage or yard sale going by another name in other parts of the country. I’ve never seen a garage sale where the garage was sold or a yard sale where the yard was up for bids. Go figure. I think cars in England have bonnets, not hoods.

Yes, we generally have garage sales. Not because the garage is for sale, but it’s where you keep all the junk you put up for sale. I’ve never been to a flea market, but I know they don’t sell fleas either. :lol:

Our garage is a 3 car size so not only does it have junk it has storage, a car, my husbands 5000 tools, a pottery wheel and shelves for said pottery. :zombie: