Yarn Weights and Standards
Here's a hand reference chart to guide needle and hook selection for a particular yarn. This information is from the Craft Yarn Council .
| Weight | Knit Gauge (Stitches/4in)* | Suggested Needles | Suggested Hooks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Superfine (Sock, Fingering, Baby) | 27-32 | US 1-3 (2.25-3.25mm) | B1-E4 (2.25-3.5mm) |
| Fine (Sport, Baby) | 23-26 | US 3-5 (3.25-3.75mm) | E4-7 (3.5-4.5mm) |
| Light (DK, Light Worsted) | 21-24 | US 5-7 (3.75-4.5mm) | 7-9 (4.5-5.5mm) |
| Medium (Worsted, Afghan, Aran) | 16-20 | US 7-9 (4.5-5.5mm) | 9-10 1/2 (5.5-6.5mm) |
| Bulky (Chunky, Craft, Rug) | 12-15 | US 9-11 (5.5-8mm) | 10 1/2-13 (6.5-9mm) |
| Super Bulky (Bulky, Roving) | 6-11 | 11 and up (8mm and up) | 13 and up (9mm and up) |
*** These are ONLY GUIDELINES! For some things (e.g. scarves) you will want your piece to be nice and open, drapey, so you will want to knit or crochet to looser (fewer stitches per 4 inches) gauge. For others items (e.g. totebags) you want your piece to be really firm and sturdy. In this case, you will want to knit to tighter (more stitches per inch)
I have not included the information for crochet gauge, since there are so many kinds of crochet, and so much is lacey, or in the form of motifs. The hook size recommendations will give you appropriately sized stitches, though.
Also, as you are ALWAYS WARNED!!!, different people knit or crochet at different tightnesses. One person may have much larger stitches (fewer stitches per inch) than another, even if they are using the same yarn and needles. So experimenting with gauge is ALWAYS a good idea, even if you aren't making something that needs to be a particular size. You want to make sure it has the right hand (loose and drapey, or tight and firm)
Stitch Orientation
Although we hate to think about it, sometimes we need to rip out some rows to fix mistakes, or sometimes the stitches just fall off the needle.
I advise my students to get their work back on the needles AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE, to avoid further headaches.
This will frequently result in stitches ending up back on the needles backwards. If care isn't taken to knit those stitches correctly, then they will end up twisted.
Its easy to spot backwards stitches once you know how to look for them.
Basically, what you want is for the right hand leg of the stitch to come over the front of the needle. The stitch, when "read" from left to right, comes from the back, over the needle and down the front
| Correct Stitch Orientation | Backward Stitch Orientation |
|---|---|
|
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| Right leg of stitch is in front | Left leg of stitch is in front |
|
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You can do one of two things when you encounter backwards stitches
- Take the stitch off the left hand needle, turn it around and put it back on
- Knit through the back leg of the stitch instead of the front. You always want to knit through the RIGHT HAND LEG of the stitch
| Correctly knitted, untwisted stitch | Incorrectly knitted, twisted stitch |
|---|---|
|
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Yarn Markers
The best stitch markers are lying right next to you! Using scrap yarns from other projects as markers is a way to create an infinite supply of customizeable markers..... for free!
Cut a piece of scrap yarn 3 or 4 inches long. Fold it in half, and knot it about a half inch down. You now have a loop which will fit right over the needle.
Use different colors to mark different actions. For example:
- Use Green Markers to indicate that you need to increase or decrease BEFORE the marker
- Use Red Markers to indicate that you need to increase or decrease AFTER the marker
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Use one color marker to separate repeats or pattern panels, another to indicate the beginning or end of a round. Yellow arrow points to pink marker, end of round
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Break off a piece of scrap yarn. Fold it in half, and knot it about a half inch from the end... you now have a marker.
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You can use yarn markers to help count rows for pattern repeats. This is really helpful for cable panels that have different row count for different panels.
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Create a series of knots in the marker loop equal to the number of rows in the pattern repeat, spaced about half an inch apart.
This will create a "chain" of "links" in the marker, with a knot in between each link.
- Place the marker before the pattern stitches.
- On each row, when you slip the marker, insert the needle into the next link down the chain. (e.g. on the first link, your needle will be in the first space on the second row, your needle will be in the 2nd link, third row: third link etc.)
- When you reach the end, and there are no more links, you are at the beginning of the pattern repeat. Insert your needle in the top link, and continue.
- This way, you will always know which row of the pattern repeat your are on for each individual pattern
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Create a series of knots in the marker loop equal to the number of rows in the pattern repeat, spaced about half an inch apart.
This will create a "chain" of "links" in the marker, with a knot in between each link.
- Use pricetags (little pieces of card stock with strings attached) as markers. You can write on the tag any complicated instructions that need to happen at the marker.