{"id":2989,"date":"2020-03-13T16:05:05","date_gmt":"2020-03-13T16:05:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mentalblocks.co.uk\/blog\/?p=2989"},"modified":"2020-03-13T16:07:44","modified_gmt":"2020-03-13T16:07:44","slug":"confusing-bell-gauges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mentalblocks.co.uk\/blog\/confusing-bell-gauges\/","title":{"rendered":"Confusing bell gauges"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A year ago I blogged<\/a> 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 9 is equivalent to 3.75 mm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The answer is really quite simple but it is clear to see where the confusion arises. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is an early twentieth century gauge made by H Walker but it is very similar to all other gauges of that era. There are minor discrepancies with a few gauges but, generally speaking, they are all fairly accurate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The holes in the centre are exactly what you would expect to see. The largest is size 1, which is equal to a modern-day 7.5 mm. Size 2 is 7 mm. The confusion begins when you want to use the edge of the gauge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below is a conversion chart showing the metric equivalents of the UK sizes. (Some are missing because there is no easy metric equivalent.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Looking at the smaller holes it becomes obvious that the holes are much bigger than the metric measurements. It is the slits that should be used to measure the needle. <\/strong>

The size 9 slit, shown by the ruler, is indeed 3.75 mm (or thereabouts). The only completely accurate way to measure the diameter of a needle is using scientific calipers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over time gauges changed and the problem was eliminated. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[42],"tags":[33,21,34,25,26],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mentalblocks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2989"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mentalblocks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mentalblocks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mentalblocks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mentalblocks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2989"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/mentalblocks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2998,"href":"http:\/\/mentalblocks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2989\/revisions\/2998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mentalblocks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mentalblocks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mentalblocks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}