Recently, I purchased some square cross-section needles and I love them. There are two brands available (that I know of): Kollage Square® and Knitter’s Pride Cubics. I got mine from the ever delightful Simply Socks Yarn Co. These are lovely to work with: they are comfortable to hold, they really do seem to keep my tension more even and they don’t roll off my working surface when I put them down! I will report more on these as I play work with them over the coming weeks and months.
There is one major disadvantage as I see it though. That is sizing. Because the square cross-section needles are measured in the same needle gauges as round needles, the size on the needles refers to the the diagonal of the cross-section. That means that the perimeter of a square with a diagonal measurement of, for example 4mm, is smaller that a perimeter (or circumference) of a circle with a diameter of 4mm. As a result, a square cross-section needle marked 4mm is actually equivalent to a circle cross-section needle that is just over 3.5 mm.
The important thing is that a 4mm square cross-setion needle is actually smaller than 4mm circle cross-section needle (your traditional needles).
Below, I have created a chart with different size square cross-section needles (not all these sizes are actually available at this time) and their approximate equivalents in circle cross-section needles and the corresponding US size needles. So, if you usually use a 3mm traditional circle cross-section needle, choose a 3.25 mm square cross-section needle. If you have a 5mm square cross-section needle, it will be approximately equal to a 4.5mm round cross-section needle. The second column just shows what the approximate perimeter of the square cross-section needle.
| Size of sq needle (mm) | Approx. perimeter (mm) | Approx. round size (mm) | Approx. equivalent US size |
|
2 |
1.8 |
1.75 |
00 |
|
2.25 |
2.03 |
2 |
0 |
|
2.5 |
2.25 |
2.25 |
1 |
|
2.75 |
2.48 |
2.50 |
1.5 |
|
3 |
2.7 |
2.75 |
2 |
|
3.25 |
2.93 |
3 |
2.5 |
|
3.5 |
3.15 |
3.25 |
3 |
|
3.75 |
3.38 |
3.25 – 3.50 |
4 |
|
4 |
3.6 |
3.50 |
5 |
|
4.25 |
3.83 |
3.75 – 4 |
6 |
|
4.5 |
4.05 |
4 |
6 |
|
4.75 |
4.28 |
4.25 |
n/a |
|
5 |
4.5 |
4.5 |
7 |
|
5.25 |
4.73 |
4.75 |
n/a |
|
5.5 |
4.95 |
5 |
8 |
|
5.75 |
5.18 |
5.25 |
n/a |
|
6 |
5.4 |
5.5 |
9 |
|
6.5 |
5.85 |
5.75 – 6 |
10 |
|
7 |
6.3 |
6 |
10.5 |
|
8 |
7.2 |
7 |
10.75 |
|
9 |
8.1 |
8 |
11 |