A year ago I blogged about the knitting needle gauges I have in my collection that are shaped like bells. This week I was asked a question about why a size 9 hole in an old UK gauge looks as though it measures 5 or 6 mm when all the gauge conversion charts say size …
Tag: needles
Beehives
Prior to 1920, J. and J. Baldwin’s Wool and Paton’s Yarn’s, were separate companies both manufacturing wool for commercial purposes. They merged and went into producing wool for home knitters. They published patterns under Paton’s Rose and Baldwin’s Beehive trademarks then quickly became Paton’s & Baldwin’s (or P & B) and used only the Beehive …
Viyella Gauges
I have four Viyella knitting needle gauges. They are basically the same but are all different. Some differences are more obvious than others. The same picture is on the back of three of the drums. It is of two children, in the style of Mabel Lucie Attwell but I cannot confirm that she was the …
The Bells
I used to collect knitting needle gauges – for a rather perverse reason. Our first knitting book (Woolly Thoughts) was about modular knitting using any needles and any yarn to make a garment of the right size without ever having to knit a tension square (known as a gauge square, or swatch, in US). Many …
DIY Circular Needles
I am not really a sock knitter but I recently wrote a pattern for mathematical slippers and made several pairs in a few weeks. The front, sides and sole of the slippers are knitted flat; the cuffs can be knitted flat or in the round. Things with a small circumference, such as socks, can be …