Knitting tension

Knitting tension by UK yarn weight: 31 ball bands

On UK ball bands, the standard knitting tension is 28 stitches and 36 rows to 10cm for 4 ply on 3.25mm needles, 22 stitches and 28 to 30 rows for DK on 4mm, 18 stitches and 24 rows for aran on 5mm, 14 stitches and 20 rows for chunky on 6mm, and 8 to 10 stitches and 10 to 14 rows for super chunky on 9 to 12mm. We read those figures off 31 yarns sold in the UK, from Stylecraft, King Cole, Paintbox Yarns, Hayfield, Sirdar, West Yorkshire Spinners and DROPS. The stitch counts barely move inside each weight. The rows, the metres and your own hands are another matter.

HazelLoop planning guide · Reviewed 4 October 2026 · Figures from cited sources

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The short answer, weight by weight

Tension is the number of stitches and rows in a 10cm square of knitting, usually in stocking stitch (US stockinette). Americans call it gauge. Every ball band in our sample gives one, and so do the Stylecraft and DROPS patterns we checked, because a pattern’s stitch counts are worked out from it.

The table below is the band figure that turned up most often for each UK weight, with the needle it comes with. The old UK needle numbers come from the conversion table on Wikipedia’s knitting needle page, and Stylecraft’s own patterns use the same pairs: a 6mm needle is “UK 4, US 10” in its Ribbed Dog Coat, and 3¼mm is “UK10” in its Head over Heels Festive sweaters. The last column is the Craft Yarn Council’s guideline range for the matching category, which gives stitches to 4 inches (10.2cm) and no rows.

Standard knitting tension by UK yarn weight, from 31 ball bands (stocking stitch, per 10cm square, checked 4 October 2026)
UK weight	Yarns	Usual band tension	Band stitches range	Band rows range	Usual needle	Old UK no. / US size	CYC stitch range
4 ply	6	28 sts × 36 rows	24–28	32–36	3.25mm	10 / 3	27–32 (Super Fine)
DK	9	22 sts × 28 or 30 rows	21–22	28–30	4mm	8 / 6	21–24 (Light)
Aran	6	18 sts × 24 rows	17–18	22–25	5mm	6 / 8	16–20 (Medium)
Chunky	4	14 sts × 20 rows	14	19–20	6mm (one at 6.5mm)	4 / 10	12–15 (Bulky)
Super chunky	6	9 or 10 sts × 12 or 14 rows	8–10	10–14	9–12mm	00 (9mm), 000 (10mm) / 13, 15	7–11 (Super Bulky)

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31 ball bands, side by side

For each yarn we noted the tension, needle, ball weight and length on 4 October 2026. The five Stylecraft Special yarns come from Stylecraft’s own product pages. King Cole, Paintbox Yarns, Hayfield, Sirdar and West Yorkshire Spinners come from their listings on LoveCrafts, a UK yarn shop, because King Cole’s own page for Big Value DK gives the needle (4mm) and the length (145m) but no tension. Garnstudio’s site refused our requests, so the six DROPS yarns come from Wool Warehouse, a UK stockist, and we checked each one against an archived copy of the Garnstudio page from 2026. They matched.

These are the makers’ figures. We haven’t knitted the swatches ourselves, and your square will differ a little from any band.

Knitting tension, needle and length on 31 UK-sold ball bands (stocking stitch per 10cm, checked 4 October 2026)
Yarn	Weight	Stitches	Rows	Needle	Ball	Metres per 100g	Read from
Stylecraft Special 4 Ply	4 ply	28	36	3.25mm	100g / 422m	422	Stylecraft
King Cole Big Value Baby 4 Ply	4 ply	28	36	3.25mm	100g / 400m	400	LoveCrafts
Sirdar Country Classic 4 Ply	4 ply	28	36	3.25mm	50g / 200m	400	LoveCrafts
West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4 Ply	4 ply	28	36	3.25mm	100g / 400m	400	LoveCrafts
King Cole Merino Blend 4 Ply	4 ply	28	36	3.25mm	50g / 180m	360	LoveCrafts
DROPS Fabel	4 ply	24	32	3mm	50g / 205m	410	Wool Warehouse
Stylecraft Special DK	DK	22	30	4mm	100g / 295m	295	Stylecraft
Paintbox Yarns Simply DK	DK	22	30	4mm	100g / 276m	276	LoveCrafts
Paintbox Yarns Cotton DK	DK	22	30	4mm	50g / 125m	250	LoveCrafts
Hayfield Bonus DK	DK	22	28	4mm	100g / 280m	280	LoveCrafts
King Cole Big Value DK 50g	DK	22	28	4mm	50g / 145m	290	LoveCrafts
King Cole Merino Blend DK	DK	22	28	4mm	50g / 104m	208	LoveCrafts
West Yorkshire Spinners The Croft DK	DK	22	28	4mm	100g / 225m	225	LoveCrafts
DROPS Lima	DK	21	28	4mm	50g / 100m	200	Wool Warehouse
DROPS Merino Extra Fine	DK	21	28	4mm	50g / 105m	210	Wool Warehouse
Stylecraft Special Aran	Aran	18	24	5mm	100g / 196m	196	Stylecraft
Paintbox Yarns Simply Aran	Aran	18	24	5mm	100g / 184m	184	LoveCrafts
Hayfield Bonus Aran	Aran	18	24	5mm	100g / 256m	256	LoveCrafts
King Cole Big Value Aran	Aran	18	25	5mm	100g / 212m	212	LoveCrafts (tension); King Cole (length)
West Yorkshire Spinners The Croft Aran	Aran	18	24	5mm	100g / 166m	166	LoveCrafts
DROPS Nepal	Aran	17	22	5mm	50g / 75m	150	Wool Warehouse
Stylecraft Special Chunky	Chunky	14	20	6mm	100g / 144m	144	Stylecraft
King Cole Big Value Chunky	Chunky	14	20	6mm	100g / 152m	152	LoveCrafts
Paintbox Yarns Simply Chunky	Chunky	14	20	6mm	100g / 136m	136	LoveCrafts
Hayfield Bonus Chunky	Chunky	14	19	6.5mm	100g / 137m	137	LoveCrafts
Stylecraft Special XL	Super chunky	9	12	10mm	200g / 136m	68	Stylecraft
Hayfield Bonus Super Chunky	Super chunky	9	12	10mm	100g / 82m	82	LoveCrafts
King Cole Big Value Super Chunky	Super chunky	10	14	10mm	100g / 81m	81	LoveCrafts
Paintbox Yarns Simply Super Chunky	Super chunky	8	10	10–12mm	100g / 60m	60	LoveCrafts
DROPS Andes	Super chunky	10	14	9mm	100g / 90m	90	Wool Warehouse
DROPS Snow	Super chunky	10	14	9mm	50g / 50m	100	Wool Warehouse

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The stitches agree. The rows don’t

All seven non-DROPS DKs in the table ask for 22 stitches to 10cm on 4mm needles. They split on rows. Stylecraft Special DK, Paintbox Simply DK and Paintbox Cotton DK say 30 rows. Hayfield Bonus DK, King Cole Big Value DK, King Cole Merino Blend DK and West Yorkshire Spinners The Croft DK say 28. The arans do the same on a smaller scale: four give 24 rows, King Cole Big Value Aran gives 25 and DROPS Nepal 22.

Two rows sounds like nothing, but patterns count rows for shaping. Sixty rows of raglan decreases written for a 30-row tension make 20cm. At 28 rows to 10cm, the same 60 rows make 21.4cm. Most patterns tell you to knit the body to a length in centimetres, which hides the difference there, but armholes, sleeve caps and necklines are usually written in rows. If you swap one DK for another, count rows on your square as well as stitches.

The rows also tell you the shape of a stitch. Across the 31 bands the median is 1.33 rows for every stitch, so a knitted stitch in stocking stitch is roughly a third wider than it is tall. That is why a square of stocking stitch needs more rows than stitches.

From 1,008 stitches to 80

Multiply stitches by rows and you get the number of stitches in one 10cm square. A 4 ply at 28 by 36 packs 1,008 into it. A DK at 22 by 30 has 660, an aran at 18 by 24 has 432 and a chunky at 14 by 20 has 280. Paintbox Yarns Simply Super Chunky, at 8 stitches by 10 rows, has 80. So a 4 ply jumper takes more than 12 times as many stitches as the same area in the thickest yarn here, which goes some way to explaining why super chunky is sold as the quick option.

Super chunky is the loosest category in every sense. Its six bands run from 80 to 140 stitches per square, and the needles from 9mm to 12mm. Stylecraft Special XL and Hayfield Bonus Super Chunky give 9 by 12 on 10mm, while King Cole Big Value Super Chunky, DROPS Andes and DROPS Snow give 10 by 14. Treat a super chunky pattern’s tension as specific to its yarn.

Only one band sits outside the Craft Yarn Council’s range for its weight. DROPS Fabel is sold as 4 ply, but its 24 stitches to 10cm on 3mm falls short of the Council’s 27 to 32 for fingering yarn. DROPS puts it in its own group A, for 23 to 26 stitches. A pattern written for a 28-stitch 4 ply will come out about 17% wider in Fabel if you change nothing.

Metres per 100g spread much more than tension does. The DKs run from 200m (DROPS Lima) to 295m (Stylecraft Special DK) at the same 21 or 22 stitches, and Hayfield Bonus Aran, at 256m, holds more yarn per gram than five of the DKs and more than any of the eight arans in our UK yarn weights guide, which top out at 212m. Our guides to UK yarn weights and to substituting yarn go into the metres; this page sticks to the square.

How to knit a tension square

DROPS sets out the method in its lesson on measuring tension. Cast on more stitches than the tension gives for 10cm, and knit a little more than 10cm in the pattern’s stitch, starting with the suggested needle. Lay a tape measure on the square and count the stitches and the rows in 10cm. We’d measure across the middle rather than along the edges.

For a 22-stitch DK that means casting on around 30 and knitting to about 12cm. Use the needles you’ll knit the project on, because DROPS notes that tension often changes between metal, wood, circular and double-pointed needles. If the yarn will be washed or blocked when it is finished, do the same to the square before you measure. DROPS told one knitter in the comments under that lesson that it never blocks its swatches, so if your pattern says nothing, knit the square as the garment will be treated.

Too many stitches or too few: needle up or down

The rule is short. More stitches than the pattern’s 10cm means you knit tightly, so change to a larger needle. Fewer stitches means you knit loosely, so change to a smaller one. Knit a new square after each change. DROPS says there is no correct needle size and that its own designers use different needles with the same yarn. If you need a 6mm needle to match a pattern that suggests 4mm, use it.

Small differences add up across a garment. DROPS gives the example of 96 stitches meant to make 48cm at 20 stitches to 10cm. Knitted at 22 stitches, those 96 stitches make 43.6cm. The table after this section does the same sum for a real pattern, Stylecraft’s plain round neck sweater in Head over Heels Festive, a 4 ply knitted at 28 stitches and 36 rows on 3¼mm needles. Its third size measures 90cm round the chest and asks for 5 balls of 100g.

Stylecraft plain round neck sweater in Head over Heels Festive, 90cm size knitted to the pattern’s stitch counts: chest by your stitch tension (our arithmetic, 4 October 2026)
Your stitches per 10cm	Needle change to try	Finished chest	Difference	Yarn, scaled by width (100g balls)
26	Smaller needle	96.9cm	+6.9cm	5.4, so buy 6
27	Smaller needle	93.3cm	+3.3cm	5.2, so buy 6
28 (pattern)	None	90cm	0	5
29	Larger needle	86.9cm	−3.1cm	4.8, still 5
30	Larger needle	84cm	−6cm	4.7, still 5

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How tension changes the yarn you need

DROPS puts it plainly in the tension note on its patterns: if you knit to a different tension, “you will have a different yarn consumption”, and different measurements too. Stylecraft prints a similar warning on its patterns, that the amounts “are based on average requirements and are therefore approximate”.

A loose knitter who keeps the pattern’s needle makes a bigger garment, and a bigger garment takes more yarn. As a rough guide, scale the quantity by how much wider the fabric comes out. In the sweater above, 26 stitches instead of 28 makes it 7.7% wider, so 5 balls becomes about 5.4, and you’d buy 6. That is our estimate, not Stylecraft’s, and it leaves out any extra length from fewer rows. Change needles until the square matches, and the pattern’s own quantity applies again.

Changing yarn works the same way. Match the tension first, then compare metres, not balls: the yarn substitution calculator converts a pattern’s quantity from one ball band to another. If you also crochet, our pattern pairs on whether crochet uses more yarn than knitting show how much the craft itself shifts the totals.

Check before you move on

Read the tension on the band and in the pattern, stitches and rows
Knit a square at least 12cm wide and tall on the needles you’ll use
Wash or block the square if the finished piece will be washed or blocked
Count stitches and rows over 10cm in the middle of the square
Too many stitches: go up a needle size. Too few: go down. Re-knit and re-measure
Swapping yarn: match tension first, then convert the quantity by metres

Ready to buy?

For knitting and measuring a tension square

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Flexible dual-sided sewing tape measure

150cm on one side, 60 inches on the other; soft tape for measuring squares and fabric.

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Clover Kacha Mini row counter

One click counter for tracking rows or repeats.

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Our pick

Four of the nine blankets in our blanket guide use Stylecraft Special DK, so our tables convert straight to its 295m balls.

Stylecraft Special DK, Charcoal (1128)

One 100g / 295m ball, 100% acrylic, sold by The Great British Yarn Company.

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Paid links: we may earn a commission from qualifying purchases. Nothing you type into our tools is added to these links. Check price, seller and delivery at Amazon. Colour swatches are approximate.

Try it with your own numbers.

Turn the pattern’s balls, grams or yards into whole balls of your yarn, with a thickness check.

Swap my yarn ↗

Common questions

What is the tension for DK yarn?

Every DK from Stylecraft, Paintbox Yarns, Hayfield, King Cole and West Yorkshire Spinners in our sample gives 22 stitches to 10cm on 4mm needles. Rows are 28 or 30, depending on the brand. DROPS Lima and Merino Extra Fine give 21 stitches and 28 rows.

What is the knitting tension for aran?

18 stitches and 24 rows to 10cm on 5mm needles is the usual figure on UK bands. King Cole Big Value Aran gives 25 rows, and DROPS Nepal gives 17 stitches and 22 rows.

Does tension affect how much yarn I need?

Yes. DROPS says a different tension gives a different yarn consumption. If you knit loosely on the pattern’s needles the piece comes out bigger and takes more yarn. Change needle size until your square matches, and the pattern quantity should hold.

Should I go up or down a needle size if my tension is too tight?

Up. Too many stitches in 10cm means your stitches are small, so a larger needle makes them bigger. Too few stitches means go down a size.

What is a UK size 8 knitting needle in mm?

4mm, which is US 6. An old UK 10 is 3.25mm, a UK 6 is 5mm and a UK 4 is 6mm. The old numbers ran backwards, so a smaller number means a thicker needle.

Sources and scope

Sources checked 4 October 2026. Label facts come from the linked references; worked purchase examples and arithmetic are our own illustrations.

Keep planning

These are planning methods, not physically tested crochet patterns. Read our method and editorial approach.