Differences Between American (US) and British (UK) Knitting Terms

When I published a tutorial about common issues that beginner knitters have with seed stitch, I was absolutely sure that “seed stitch” is the only name used for a stitch pattern that requires alternating knits and purls in the first row, and then purling the knits and knitting the purls in all subsequent rows.

From the emails that I’ve received from knitters subscribed to my newsletter, I learned that this well-known stitch is called “moss stitch” in Great Britain. 

That made me curious about other knitting terms that are called differently across the Atlantic. So I spent a few days rummaging through glossaries in books and magazines that use British terminology and comparing the knitting terms to the ones used in North America. 

A huge thank you to everyone who sent me information about terms used in British knitting patterns. Your suggestions have been most helpful. Thank you 🙂

All differences I found so far are listed in this chart:

You can also download this chart as a PDF from the Library of Free Knitting Resources.

While doing this extensive research, I stumbled upon a knitting needle conversion chart in “Vogue Knitting: The Ultimate Knitting Book”. I thought it would be handy to have a needle size chart in addition to the table of differences between British and American knitting terms.

The chart from Vogue Knitting book did not include some of the needle sizes that are available on the market these days, so I used information from HiyaHiya website and from Vogue Knitting website to add more sizes. 

You are more than welcome to download this expanded chart as a PDF right here 🙂

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If you enjoyed this tutorial,
here’s something else you might find helpful:

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