Saturday, March 10, 2007

Needle Size Question

I just picked up the book and love just about all of the patterns! I've been active in all of the Nancy Bush KALs for quite some time and am used to her patterns which brings me to the needle-size question. I was surprised to see how large the needle size is on many of the patterns. I'm used to knitting socks with 2.0mm or 2.25 and several of these patterns use US size 3's and larger. I can understand using that size with the Dale of Norway Heilo yarn but fingering weight? I guess my question is, does anyone else find this unusual? And, for those of you have knit some of these patterns already, is the sizing working?

I have already loved reading your posts and seeing the pictures and hope to jump in soon. I am almost through the first cuff of the Retro Rib socks.

Thanks!
Rebecca
http://socks-for-mum.blogspot.com

2 comments:

Laura said...

When I am knitting basic socks for the family to wear I use size 3 needles for women and size 5 (and worsted weight yarn) for men. I cast on 48 stitches and go from there. It makes the knitting go much faster which is nice when you are just making plain ribbed, boring, practical every day socks. When I got this book I was glad to see that there is a variety of needle sizes called for since I am not used to making socks on size 0 or 1s! That doesn't mean that I am not going to give it a try, but its nice to have options.

http://lbullins.blogspot.com

Bonnie said...

I might swatch using the recommended needle sizes, but I expect to need to go down. I'm a loose knitter and usually I do the ribbing/upper calves of my socks on US2 dpns, and the rest on US1.

For me, it's hard to imagine using US3 for fingering weight yarn, but US3 would probaby be just right for something a little heavier, like Cascade Fixation.