Accurate

knitting needle A knitting needle or knitting pin is a tool in hand-knitting to produce knitted fabrics. They generally have a long shaft and taper at their end, but they are not nearly as sharp as sewing needles. Their purpose is two-fold. The long shaft ' ...

and

crochet hook A crochet hook (or crochet needle) is an implement used to make loops in thread or yarn and to interlock them into crochet stitches. It is a round shaft pointed on one end, with a lateral groove behind it. The point eases the insertion of the hook ...

sizing is important for both crafts. There are, however, no uniform procedures for indicating these measurements. The

Craft Yarn Council of America A craft or trade is a pastime or an occupation that requires particular skills and knowledge of skilled work. In a historical sense, particularly the Middle Ages and earlier, the term is usually applied to people occupied in small scale pr ...

(CYCA), an industry trade association, has collated a table of crochet hook and knitting needle sizes from ''de facto'' industrial standards and elicited the cooperation of its member organizations in adopting them to regularize sizing in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. The listed gauge systems are also widely used internationally. Their broader applicability is further highlighted by their normalization with the

metric system The metric system is a system of measurement that succeeded the Decimal, decimalised system based on the metre that had been introduced in French Revolution, France in the 1790s. The historical development of these systems culminated in the d ...

, which the CYCA members have agreed to have appear prominently on their packaging. A

hook gauge A hook gauge or ''needle gauge'' is a measuring device used by crocheters and knitters to test the sizes of particular crochet hooks and knitting needles. Hook gauges are usually made of plastic or aluminum and have sizing holes from 2mm to 11mm ...

is used for measuring both knitting needles and crochet hooks. The size of a crochet hook is determined by the diameter of its shaft.

Standard knitting needle and crochet hook sizes

References

Crochet Knitting Mechanical standards Standards of the United States

External links

{{Commons category-multi, Crochet hooks, Knitting needles and tools
Craft Yarn Council of America