Choosing the Best Crochet Hook for Your Project

Conversion Guidelines for Crochet Hooks

Choosing the Best Crochet Hook for Your Project

If you are a crochet enthusiast, then you have undoubtedly discovered how many crochet hooks are available for you to use. Whether you are creating large airy shawls and prefer a nice sized hook that allows for open work, or if you are creating a close-stitched garment and would prefer that there were no spaces between rows, you will need to choose your crochet hooks carefully and wisely.
It may seem simple at first, simply purchase a pattern, and choose the crochet hook and yarn recommended by the publisher. Well, this will satisfy your beginning endeavors, but once you see that perfect shawl that was crocheted in the late 1800's or wish to convert a pattern from knit to crochet, you will need a little more than a recommendation to ensure that your pattern produces the desired results.
Also, crochet hooks vary by manufacturer, material used in the construction of the hooks, as well as by the country where the hook was designed. Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States have varying measurements for each crochet hook, and bamboo or wood hooks are different from steel or aluminum.
If you have found a pattern and would like to convert the crochet hook size from meters to standard US, UK, or Canadian sizes the following chart will serve as a guide. This chart is used for converting Aluminum Crochet Hooks.

METRIC (MM) US UK/CANADA

2.0 - 14
2.25 B/1 13
2.5 - 12
2.75 C/2 -
3.0 - 11
3.25 D/3 10
3.5 E/4 9
3.75 F/5 -
4.0 G/6 8
4.5 - 7
5.0 H/8 6
5.5 I/9 5
6.0 J/10 4
6.5 K/10.5 3
7.0 - 2
8.0 L/11 0
9.0 M/13 00
10.0 N/15 000
16.0 P/16 -
16.0 Q -
19 S -

Here is a chart for converting Steel Crochet Hooks
METRIC (MM) US UK/CANADA

0.75 14
0.85 13 7
1 12 6 1/2
1.1 11 6
1.3 10 5 1/2
1.4 9 5
1.5 8 4 1/2
1.65 7 4
1.8 6 3 1/2
1.9 5 3
2 4 2 1/2
2.1 3 2
2.25 2 1 1/2
2.75 1 1
3.25 0 0
3.5 00

AUSTRALIAN AND UK CONVERSION CHART

Hi, I have been looking at your impressive website, but I have found one rather awkward mistake on the page that has the abbreviations.

At the bottom of the page there is a ply conversion for 2 ply, 3ply, 4 ply and 5 ply.

Actually 2 ply wool is finer than fingering and used for lace making or fine shawls,

3 ply is a light baby wool, like fingering,

4 ply is a little heavier (double the thickness of 2 ply),

5 ply is sport weight,

8 ply is double the thickness of 4 ply and about worsted weight

10 ply - Aran weight

12 ply which is chunky (and 3 times the thickness of 4 ply, or 6 times the thickness of 2 ply).

Knitting is normally done on

12 ply with 6.5mm needles,

8 ply done on 4mm needles,

5 ply done on 3.75mm needles

2 ply knitted on 2.25mm needles.

It is very difficult to get exact conversions, but if you only go to 5 ply as a bulky wool patterns will be very badly out of size.

Websites for English wool manufacturers like Sirdar will give you a recommended needle size for the thickness of wool,

English styled "DK" or double knitting is equivalent to 8 ply

Aran = 10 ply

Chunky = 12ply.
Conversion Chartfor Yarn

American yarns vs European yarns

2-Ply

Either 32 stitches and 40 rows to 10 cm. (4 inches) on a 3 1/4 mm (US 3) needle, or 34 stitches and 42 rows to 10 cm. (4 inches) on a 3 1/4 mm (US 3) needle, depending upon the manufacturer. Check the ball band and pattern.

3-Ply

32 stitches and 40 rows to 10 cm. (4 inches) on a 3 1/4 mm (US 3) needle.

4-Ply Fingering

28 stitches and 36 rows to 10 cm. (4 inches) on a 3 1/4 mm (US 3)needle. In the US the term 4-Ply is used for Knitting Worsted. Check your pattern carefully to determine which yarn you need.

5-Ply

Used in Australia and New Zealand. 26 stitches to 10 cm (4 inches) on a 3.75 mm (US 5) needle. See also Quickerknit

8-Ply

Used in Australia and New Zealand for Double Knitting or DK.

10-Ply

Used in Australia and New Zealand for Worsted Weight Yarn.

12-Ply

Used in Australia and New Zealand. 17 to 18 stitches to 10 cm (4 inches) on a 5 to 5.5 mm (US 8 to 9) needle. See Aran .

Aran

18 stitches and 24 rows to 10 cm (4 inches) on a 5 mm (US 8) needle. Some knitters use Knitting Worsted instead, but check your tension carefully first!

Baby

Usually used to refer to 3-Ply but check the tension on the pattern first.

Bulky

14 stitches and 19 rows to 10 cm. (4 inches) on a 6 mm (US 10) needle.

Chunky

15 stitches and 20 rows to 10 cm. (4 inches) on a 6 mm (US 10) needle. In the UK what is referred to as a chunky is what North Americans call a Bulky. Again check your pattern and tension carefully.

Double Knitting (DK)

22 stitches and 30 rows to 10 cm. (4 inches) on a 4 mm (US 6) needle.

Jumper Weight

Usually a Four Ply Fingering Weight.

Knitting Worsted

20 stitches and 26 rows to 10 cm. (4 inches) on a 4 1/2 mm (US 7) needle.

Mohair

Mohair generally knits up as a Chunky but some mohairs knit slightly differently, so check your pattern and tension first!

Quickerknit

26 stitches to 10 cm (4 inches) on a 3.75 mm (US 5) needle. Popular yarn in the UK, mainly for baby and toddler outfits. Not generally available in North America.

Sports weight Yarn

24 stitches and 34 rows to 10 cm. (4 inches) on a 3 3/4 mm (US 5) needle. Some yarns such as Astra knit up as Sports weight or a Double Knit. It should be possible to interchange these two weights, but check your tension first!

As seen at