As I scour the net for wool, patterns, advice etc I am constantly having to look up US terms and translate them into English (I’m sorry but you North Americans do NOT talk English as we English know it !! ;D ) I have not found one single source for translating needle sizes, wool type, pattern terms etc so thought I’d make on myself.

This is an organic page and I will add more terms as I come across them, if you come across any please let me know!

Knitting Needle Sizes

I have seen different conversions for some needle sizes which indicates that the needle sizes are not exact equivalents and it may be that if you knit looser or tighter then you will need the next needle up or down. This is particularly true where there are several needles spanning a very small difference in size eg 2 mm to 4 mm only 2 mm of difference but 5 UK sizes and 7 US.

The important lesson here is – always knit a swatch if you are using a US pattern but knitting on English needles!

UK	US	Metric
24	8/0	½ mm
22	6/0	3/4mm
20	-	-
19	5/0	1 mm
18	4/0	1 ¼ mm
17	000	1 ½ mm
16	-	-
15	00	1 ¾ mm
14	0	2 mm
13	1	2 ¼ mm
		2 ½ mm
12	2	2 ¾ mm
11		3 mm
10	3	3 ¼ mm
	4	3 ½ mm
9	5	3 ¾ mm
8	6	4 mm
7	7	4 ½ mm
6	8	5 mm
5	9	5 ½ mm
4	10	6 mm
3	10 ½	6 ½ mm
2	-	7 mm
1	-	7 ½ mm
0	11	8 mm
00	13	9 mm
000	15	10 mm
-	17	12 ½ mm
-	18	14 mm
-	19	15 ½ mm
-	35	19 mm

Crochet Hook Conversion

This table gives the metric hook size, old UK sizing and US sizing

Metric	UK	US
2mm	14	-
2.25mm	13	B/1
2.5mm	12	-
2.75mm	-	C/2
3.0mm	11	-
3.25mm	10	D/3
3.5mm	9	E/4
3.75mm	-	F/5
4.0mm	8	G/6
4.5mm	7	7
5.0mm	6	H/8
5.5mm	5	I/9
6.0mm	4	J/10
6.5mm	3	K/10 1/2
7.0mm	2	-
8.0mm	0	L/11
9.0mm	00	M/13
10.0mm	000	N/15

Crochet Terms

Terms for crochet in the US and the UK are different - the same term is used to identify a different stitch and this can make following patterns from each country quite confusing. These are some of the basic crochet terms as they appear in UK and US patterns

UK	US
Double Crochet (dc)	Single Crochet (sc)
Treble Crochet (tc)	Double Crochet (dc)
Double Treble Crochet (dtr)	Treble Crochet (tr)

Wool/Yarn

The basic difference here is that in the UK (well certainly amongst my family and friends!) we refer to anything that is knit with as “wool” whether it has any wool content or not. The term “yarn” is moving into usage but is not as widely used as it is in the US.

There are also different terms used for the thickness/weight of wool/yarn –

UK	US	Australia
2 ply	light fingering
3 ply	fingering
4 ply	fingering/sport	5 ply
DK – double knitting	sport/knitting worsted	8 ply
	knitting worsted	10 ply
Aran		12 ply
Chunky	bulky	14 ply
No 10 crochet	bedspread weight
Crochet cotton	crochet cotton

Pattern Terms

UK	US
Cast on	Bind on
Tension	Gauge
Stocking Stitch	Stockinette Stitch
Grafting	Kitchener Stitch
Moss Stitch	Seed Stitch
Yarn Forward	Yarn Over
Cast off	Bind off

Other Miscellaneous Terms etc

None of these are strictly knitting terms but they are words/terms where I have discovered the need for translation when reading patterns/websites/blogs or talking to my American friends –

Jumper

In the UK we refer to a knitted top with long sleeves that you pull over your head as a “jumper” or sometimes a “pullover” – this is generally called a “sweater” in the US.

I believe that “jumper” in the US would be a skirt with an attached bib (see Little House on the Prairie)? This is a pinafore in the UK

Tank top

This is like a jumper but has no sleeves – in the US you would call this a vest, although I think the term vest in the US is also used for what we would call a waistcoat

– a sleeveless buttoned garment worn between the shirt and jacket as part of a three-piece suit?

To further confuse, I think that in the US a “tank top” is a ladies top with narrow straps what we would call a vest or a camisole in the UK!!! - confused yet???

Vest

In the UK this term is used for an undergarment worn mainly by children and old men generally sleeveless – US equivalent would be undershirt?

In the UK we also have the wonderful garment known as the String Vest, generally worn by your granddad with shorts, sandals and socks and a knotted handkerchief whilst visiting the seaside…..

Trousers

These are called pants in the US, which causes endless amusement to us Brits as “pants” are what we call underpants.